When an Allegheny County jury announced a $109 million verdict Thursday, including $61 million in punitive damages, in favor of a woman who died three days after receiving an electric shock from a fallen power line in her yard, it was the largest award in the county’s history, according to annual statistics compiled in The Legal‘s sibling publication, PaLaw.
The verdict appears to be covered by insurance, said the plaintiffs’ lead counsel, Shanin Specter of Kline & Specter in Philadelphia, who explained that defendants West Penn Power Co. and Allegheny Power have a $5 million self-insured retention, a $35 million policy with Aegis and a $75 million policy with EIM.
