Shocking Award by Jury

[Joe Guy]

Would that be a positive or a negative charge?

[Crackpot]

Could you be a little more direct?

[Gob]

If it's not static.

[Joe Guy]

I have no doubt I conduit.

[Scooter]

The average house price in Redondo Beach is almost $700,000. After they were forced to evacuate and obviously could not sell it, it was lost to foreclosure. $60,000 per person in the house doesn't sound unreasonable for living under constant threat of electrocution, a fire, or an explosion if stray electricity happened to hit a gas line. And there's your $1 million in compensatory.

Punitive damages aren't about the injury sustained by the plaintiff, they are intended to deter the egregious behaviour that caused the damages. Three times compensatory damages is well within guidance given by the Supreme Court. And this was an electrical utility, for pete's sake, damn straight their behaviour was egregious. Who should have been more aware than they that this was dangerous

But no doubt some tort reformist wil use this case (distorting several of the facts, as they are want to do) to try to convince people of the need to protect corporate American from the consequences of their own actions.

[rubato]

Many of the 'facts' in this case are suspect. First, is there any scientific proof that low-level electrical currents cause persistent injury?

"... Her attorney said that doctors were unable to link nerve damage to the stray electricity, ... "

It does not look like it. Second, HOW many times would you get an unpleasant (if not harmful) electrical shock before you investigated the cause and fixed it? The severity of the shock was apparently both so mild and she willingly exposed herself to it repeatedly and so severe that she was permanently injured. As clear a case of self-contradiction as I have ever heard of. In this case the repair was probably trivial.

Even if they proved that the house was unsafe when Edison sold it the injury was trivial or non-existent and the repair not complicated. I would give them $1,000 each plus whatever the costs of repairs to the house wiring and make them write 1,000 times "if somethings hurts, stop doing it".

A quick search showed that she bought the house in 2007 for $968k (right before home values collapsed) and it is now worth $723k and was part of a neighborhood crank group who blamed "emf" fields for a host of health problems. The effects of low-level electromagnetic fields have been studied at great expense for > 35 years and there is no evidence of injury. This is the realm of pure crankdom.

Edison also had offered to pay for any repairs.

http://www.easyreadernews.com/35687/edi ... y-voltage/

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/904-K ... 8990_zpid/

I'm voting for "lying crank trying to make up for the loss in home equity and lacking morals in how she does it".



yrs,
rubato


O & W will enjoy reading the article for its technical flaws. :

" One of the men allegedly told her that a cow can withstand 500 ohms of current whereas a human can take 1,000 ohms. Wilson was flabbergasted. "

My flabber would be gasted too to learn that units of resistance are the same as units of current!

This is from the website for her "House Biologist" Oram Miller:
http://www.createhealthyhomes.com/

"EMF" (electro-magnetic field) evaluation and mitigation is our specialty, based upon the protocols taught by the Building BiologyTM profession. These include evaluation and mitigation of AC electric and magnetic fields from house wiring, redundant neutral paths and grounding issues. We also measure harmful radio frequency fields from cell phones, cordless telephones, Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) routers, smart meters, and nearby cell towers. We use client education, reduced use, increased distance and alternative "hard-wired" strategies to provide portability and fast, secure Internet connections without exposure to harmful radio frequencies.

Pure crankdom.

[Scooter]

Many of the 'facts' in this case are suspect. First, is there any scientific proof that low-level electrical currents cause persistent injury?

There is evidence that livestock in fields subject to stray voltage suffer ill effects include difficulty reproducing and reduced milk production.

HOW many times would you get an unpleasant (if not harmful) electrical shock before you investigated the cause and fixed it?

Because she didn't identify the sensation she felt as an electric shock, she didn't connect it with touching the shower head, but as something that happened when she raised her arms. And because she developed numbness and weakness in her extremities, she assumed that what happened in the shower was another symptom, rather than a cause. She didn't make the connection until her boyfriend touched the shower head and said it was an electric shock.

In this case the repair was probably trivial.

There is no repair. The problem does not originate within the house. The issue is that stray voltage from the substation has electrified the earth under her house, and the current is flowing into the house via whatever conductive material it can find, in this case, the water and gas lines. The problem persists even when the main breaker is switched off because it has nothing to do with the electrical system in the house.

Even if they proved that the house was unsafe when Edison sold it the injury was trivial or non-existent and the repair not complicated. I would give them $1,000 each plus whatever the costs of repairs to the house wiring and make them write 1,000 times "if somethings hurts, stop doing it".

SCE did not disclose a material fact about the condition of the property. Regardless of whether any injury was suffered, that voids the sale and SCE is responsible for any loss incurred by the buyer as a result.

If it was so trivial, why did the gas company shut off their gas after they discovered current running along the line? Why did they refuse to turn it back on until SCE installed a line from it to the substation to monitor it? Think about the potential disaster if an electrified gas line is accidently ruptured somehow. That house was not safe to live in, period.

Edison also had offered to pay for any repairs.

See above.

O & W will enjoy reading the article for its technical flaws. :

" One of the men allegedly told her that a cow can withstand 500 ohms of current whereas a human can take 1,000 ohms. Wilson was flabbergasted. "

My flabber would be gasted too to learn that units of resistance are the same as units of current!

I'm not sure if the error was in the telling or in the reporting, but what was probably told to her was that a cow has a resistance of 500 ohms, while a human's is 1000 ohms. Because acceptable limits on stray voltage were set with cows in mind, it sounds like he was trying to tell her that stray voltage below those limits must be safe for humans. The problem with that is that resistance is drastically reduced when wet, when the hands are wet, as in a shower, their resistance could be as little as 100 ohms, so all bets are off on what is acceptable.

[dgs49]

The title of this thread is apropos. Allowing juries to decide such cases is a ridiculous flaw in the American civil court system. There was apparently no proof that she was injured by the problem, and she was merely looking for a jackpot to offset her loss on the house. The problem could have been resolved by any competent electrician, with the assistance of the electric utility for a couple thousand dollars, tops.

And the judge could easily have overruled the jury, but didn't.

Failing grades all around.

[Scooter]

Um, the loss of the house was the injury she suffered. Who the fuck was going to buy it knowing that all the plumbing and gas lines were continuously live with electricity?

Do you actually believe that the utility would not have fixed the problem long before it got to the point of a lawsuit if it were as easy as you think? They kept sending team after team of technicians to her home who could do nothing but stand around with their thumbs up their asses, because the problem DID NOT ORIGINATE IN HER HOME. The electrical current is IN THE GROUND and getting into the house THROUGH THE PLUMBING AND GAS LINES. What fix are you going to propose for that, oh wise one?

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sounds like the plumbing and gas lines are/were passing/connecting an electric line on the way to the house and picking up a voltage. Typically, the water/gas lines would be grounded at the source as the source for gas lines want no part of an electrical discharge. I don't know the house's "hook up" but I am guessing that the elecrtic, plumbing and gas lines all come into the house underground and in close proximaty (aka touching) and that some insulation has worn off elctrifying the plumbing line.

Sounds like an interesting problem to solve.

[Crackpot]

That or it's close enough to the sub-station that it doesn't matter

[oldr_n_wsr]

I was thinking about this and there must be a potential (aka voltage) difference between the drain pipes and the water in pipes. While in the shower the water is pretty much in the pan or tub and there is little resistance between the bather and the drain pipe. Also many tubs are all metal but the porcelan finish is resistive. She said they got shocked when they touched the shower head, therefore there must be a disconnect of grounds between the drain pipe and the water intlet pipe. A piece of wire braid connected to both should solve the problem.

It really doesn't matter if you are living at 110V AC or at 0V AC, as long as everything around you is at the same potential. It's the difference in potential that is the problem. Just like speed, if everyone is going 50mph then all is good, it's when someone is going a different speed that is probelm

[dgs49]

The reason they couldn't find the problem is because it was in her fucking head.

Clearly.

[Scooter]

Once again, Dave, there's this thing called the internet where you could have learned more about this story if you really wanted to understand what was going on.

They had an electrician come to the house who turned off the house power at the main breaker, and he found electrical current at 26 different points in the plumbing system. The gas company turned off their service a few years ago because there was low level current running along the gas line, and would not turn it back on until SCE ran a line from it to the substation to monitor it. Was it all in their fucking heads as well? Is the entire fucking town crazy and you who can't even bother to do a google search to try to understand more of what happened the only sane one?

Jesus H. Christ, I wonder sometimes how you manage to tie your own shoes because you're so fucking thick.