The estate of an electrician who died while performing maintenance on an office building agreed to a $1,000,000 settlement in a Middlesex County lawsuit. Peter Chamas of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge, NJ represented the estate.
The building manager requested that locks on various electrical components be replaced with new ones. The plaintiff worked with his foreman and changed the locks on various components, including two surge-protection devices known as snubbers, each housed in an enclosure the size of a telephone booth. Only the snubber for System A was de-energized. After removing the lock for the snubber of System B, the plaintiff stepped into the snubber, which was energized with 26,000 volts, and was immediately electrocuted. The suit claimed that the building manager failed to ensure the safety of the workers at the site.
