The National Trial Lawyers
  • Home
    • Meet Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Mission & Goals
    • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • News
  • Membership Directory
    • Top 100 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 100 Map – Criminal Defense
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Criminal Defense
  • Top 100
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 100 President’s Message
    • Diplomat
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 100 Badge
    • Media
  • Top 40
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Bootcamp
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 40 President’s Message
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 40 Badge
    • Media
  • Specialty Assoc
    • About
    • Shop
    • Officers
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Media
  • Nominate
    • Top 100
    • Top 40
    • Specialty Association
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer of the Year
    • Trial Team of the Year
    • America’s Most Influential Trial Lawyer
    • America’s Most Influential Law Firm
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Shop
  • Magazine
    • A-List
  • Education and Networking Agenda
    • Trial Lawyers Summit
      • Summit Sponsors
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Boot Camp
    • Mass Torts Made Perfect
    • The Lanier Master Class 5.0 Trial Academy 2021
    • Webinars
  • Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

$22M Award for Utility Lineman who Lost His Legs from a Defective High-Voltage Switch

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Larry Bodine
legal news for consumers, high voltage

Citizens Energy Services assigned a lineman to do maintenance on a section of a power line, even though he had not been properly trained work on the switch. The switch had 27,000 volts and 137 amps running through it.

A utility lineman who lost both of his legs in an electric explosion won a $22 million jury award from a Vermont utility that assigned him to work on an ungrounded, defectively-installed power switch.

Michael Hemond was hit by a 5,000-degree hot electric arc that entered through his left elbow and exited through his legs, blowing off several toes. The blast knocked him out and hospitalized him for 50 days where both legs were amputated below the knees in two operations.

According to one of his attorneys, Tim Kenlan of Berman & Simmons in Lewiston, ME, the utility — Citizens Energy Services in Maine — was busy in a sale of its assets in 2004.  It cut costs by installing the switch with too little spacing between the power lines, running more power through it than it could handle and completely failing to ground the switch. When 36-year-old Hemond opened the switch in the 2006 incident, he essentially grounded the switch with his body.

“Citizens was trying to cut corners and save as much money as possible in advance of the sale,” Kenlan said. “Engineers were given the task of going through easement documents rather than planning the installation of the switch. Things fell through the cracks and the switch was never grounded or finished.”

The utility partially installed an unusual vertical switch to save space, even though all other switches in the system were horizontal. “Citizens was getting out of the business and doing an asset dump, and didn’t want to buy new equipment,” Kenlan said.

Citizens assigned Hemond to do maintenance on a section of a power line, even though he had not been properly trained work on the switch. The switch had 27,000 volts and 137 amps running through it. “1/1000th of an amp is all that is required to stop the human heart,” Kenlan said.

The company could have prevented the catastrophic injury in three ways:

  • Installing a vacuum interrupter which prevents the switch from being overloaded.
  • Installing an insulated portion into the operating pipe, which would have reduced the danger of injury.
  • Grounding the switch in the first place.

Hemond, now 42, is a married father of four children. He has recovered using prosthesis and actually returned to his job as a lineman. His wife Tracy was also awarded $2 million for loss of consortium.

Ben Gideon of Berman Simmons was lead trial counsel and also worked on the case with John Evers Shoup Evers & Green in Burlington, VT.

Posted in Blog

Comments are closed.

News Categories

Subscribe to Blog and VFJ via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog, the Voice for Justice and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Read about other Top Jury Verdicts

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that the United States has[Read More...]
Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it used recycl[Read More...]
Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

DEUTSCHE Bank AG agreed to pay US$130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manip[Read More...]
Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing has agreed to pay just over $2.5 billion to resolve a federal charge of “criminal misconduct” for how its [Read More...]
Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has le[Read More...]

#LegalNews

@@TheNTLtop100

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Attorney information and content provided on this website is provided for the benefit of members of The National Trial Lawyers and as a public service by Legal Associations Management, Inc. The website and all data are the property of Legal Associations Management, Inc. Data, including without limitation attorney information and content, on the site may not be mined, sold, or used commercially for any purpose without the explicit written consent of Legal Associations Management, Inc. This site may not be accessed by any automated program for extracting data for any use. By accessing and using the site you agree that you will not develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape data or otherwise copy profiles and other data. Unauthorized use or attempted unauthorized use of this system may subject you to both civil and criminal penalties.