Barr & Mudford Wins $2.7M for Lineman Injured on the Job

When it comes to 60,000 volt high tension power lines, how close is “too close?”

In this case, a lineman was on the ground replacing a phone cable that was carried on the same poles as high tension line. He was pulling up the phone cable by means of a pulley.

Due to the ruggedness of terrain, the cable came too close to the high tension line, the electricity arced, and the lineman was severely shocked and burned.

The power company and the cable manufacturer said the resulting injury was the lineman’s fault for getting too close.

Barr & Mudford was able to show that the phone cable had a small copper wire embedded within it which caused the arc to occur — and that cable was not labeled properly. The lineman had no way of knowing that he was in a dangerous situation.

This personal injury case was settled for $2.7 million.