Jury Finds Ohio Power 90% at Fault in Marietta Fatal House Fire, $5.4 Million Stands After 10% Reduction
After trial: The $6 million award was reduced 10 percent for Thompson's comparative fault, leaving $5.4 million. Press accounts differ on how the award was itemized.
An 85-year-old Marietta woman died in a May 2019 house fire after a storm brought a tree limb down on her service line and the utility took about 12 hours to respond. A Washington County jury found Ohio Power 90 percent negligent in April 2022 and awarded $6 million in compensatory damages. The award was reduced by the 10 percent fault assigned to the decedent, leaving $5.4 million.
What happened
On May 25, 2019, a thunderstorm in Marietta, Ohio, dropped an oak limb onto the electrical service line running to the Warren Street home of Elsa Thompson, who was 85. Neighbors reported the downed line to American Electric Power's Ohio Power utility that afternoon, shortly before 2 p.m. Thompson called as well that afternoon and again that evening, and was assured the line would be fixed.
The worker did not come for roughly 12 hours. By then the damaged line had already set off a fire. It started after 11 p.m. while Thompson was in the house, and she died in it. Her family's case was that the utility's servicer had treated a hazard that had been reported repeatedly as routine, taking lower-priority calls while the line stayed down, and that Thompson went to bed relying on the company's assurances that help was coming.
Her son brought the wrongful death suit for her estate in Washington County Common Pleas Court. Jordan Lebovitz of Nurenberg Paris Heller & McCarthy represented the family, working with local counsel John Power of Cogan & Power, who was lead counsel at trial. The case went to a jury in April 2022 after about two weeks of testimony.
Ohio Power's defense pointed at Thompson herself: the house had no smoke detectors. The jury weighed that against the utility's conduct and found Ohio Power 90 percent negligent. It found the company breached the standard of care in maintaining and inspecting the service drop to the home, and that the breach caused Thompson's injuries and death. After about five and a half hours of deliberation over two days, it returned its verdict on Friday, April 15, 2022.
The jury awarded $6 million in compensatory damages, including $2 million for Thompson's conscious pain and suffering before she died, with the balance covering her family's mental anguish and loss of companionship. Because jurors assigned Thompson 10 percent of the fault, the award was reduced by that share, and $5.4 million stood.
Outside the courtroom, Thompson's daughter-in-law told WTAP that the family had 'got justice for Elsa.' Power said there was no question that 'justice was served.'
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.WTAP, 'The verdict is in: AEP will pay millions in damages for wrongful death', April 15, 2022·Archived copy
- 2.The News and Sentinel, 'Jurors award $6M in wrongful death lawsuit against AEP', April 2022·Archived copy
- 3.Marietta Times, 'Jury awards Thompson estate $6 million', April 2022·Archived copy
- 4.Marietta Times, 'Lawsuit filed over fatal fire in Marietta', February 2020·Archived copy
- 5.Nurenberg Paris Heller & McCarthy (firm)·Archived copy
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