Jury Awards Estate $1.01 Million After Homeowner Is Electrocuted by Unprotected Attic Outlet
After trial: The Fifth District upheld the estate's award in 2006 and reversed the widow's separate $2,650,000 emotional distress award because she was not in the zone of danger and did not witness the electrocution. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled for the plaintiffs in 2010 on the insurer's default declaratory judgment, but in 2011 the courts found Martel's policy was not in effect at the time of death.
Won by Cooper Elliott.
In March 2005 a Delaware County, Ohio jury awarded the estate of Jeffrey Heintzelman $1,014,186 for his wrongful death, finding no comparative fault. Heintzelman was electrocuted in July 2002 by an unprotected outlet feeding an air conditioner condensate pump that contractor Thomas Martel had installed. The jury separately awarded his widow $2,650,000 for emotional distress. In 2006 the Fifth District upheld the estate's award and struck the widow's.
What happened
On July 15, 2002, Jeffrey Heintzelman climbed into the attic of his home in Delaware County, Ohio, to deal with water leaking from the central air conditioner. About half an hour later his wife, Margaret, went to look for him and found him slumped over the unit. Emergency crews cut power to the house and could not revive him. His death was attributed to cardiac arrhythmia caused by electrocution.
The system had been installed in 1999 by Thomas Martel, doing business as Martel Heating & Cooling. It never cooled properly and it leaked, staining the foyer ceiling below. Martel returned several times without fixing it, then went out of business, and in 2001 the couple hired a second company, Air Experts, Inc., to service the unit. The problems continued, and Jeffrey made a habit of going into the attic to reattach a pipe that kept slipping off the condensate pump.
The pump drew power from an outlet that, according to the trial evidence, had never been enclosed in a box or fastened to a wall. The court of appeals later noted that no one disputed the exposed outlet was extremely dangerous. A technician who replaced the pump two days after the death hard wired it into the air conditioner and described a tangle of wiring in the attic. Martel testified that he hard wired pumps as a matter of practice and denied installing this pump or outlet.
The estate and Margaret Heintzelman sued Martel and Air Experts for wrongful death, and Margaret also sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress. They were represented by Charles H. Cooper Jr. and Rex H. Elliott of Cooper & Elliott. Trial began in Delaware County on February 28, 2005, and on March 7 the jury found for the estate against Martel and awarded $1,014,186 on the wrongful death claim, with no comparative fault assigned to Jeffrey. It also awarded Margaret $2,650,000 for emotional distress. The jury found in favor of Air Experts, and the plaintiffs' challenge to that result failed on appeal.
The Fifth District Court of Appeals decided the appeals on September 14, 2006. It held that Margaret's emotional distress award could not stand: she had not been in the zone of danger, and she had not seen the electrocution itself, only its aftermath. The court left the estate's wrongful death award in place, and on remand the emotional distress award was set at zero.
Collecting the judgment turned into its own fight. Martel's insurer, American Family, had obtained a default judgment against its own policyholder declaring that it owed no coverage, and it argued the Heintzelmans were bound by that ruling. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the argument on July 15, 2010, holding that such a judgment binds an injured plaintiff only when the policyholder started the case or the plaintiff took part in it. On remand, the trial court found that the policy was not in effect when Jeffrey died, and the Fifth District affirmed on October 10, 2011. The record available to us does not show that the estate collected on the judgment.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Estate of Heintzelman v. Air Experts, Inc., 126 Ohio St.3d 138, Ohio Supreme Court, July 15, 2010·Archived copy
- 2.Estate of Heintzelman v. Air Experts, Inc., Ohio Supreme Court, July 15, 2010·Archived copy
- 3.Estate of Heintzelman v. Air Experts, Inc., 2006-Ohio-4832, Ohio Court of Appeals, Fifth District, Sept. 14, 2006·Archived copy
- 4.Estate of Heintzelman v. Air Experts, Inc., 2011-Ohio-5242, Ohio Court of Appeals, Fifth District, Oct. 10, 2011
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