Jury Awards EMF Damages Discrimination
For the first time, monies have been awarded in an electromagnetic field (EMF) suit. Although it decided that a high-power underground electric transmission line did not cause cancer in Atlantic Electric Co. (AE) customer John Altoonian, a six-person jury has ordered the utility to pay him about $760,000 in damages for lost wages and emotional distress. The first jury was hopelessly deadlocked; the current alternate panel found AE unintentionally negligent. AE calls the award "confusing" and plans to appeal. (em LB
Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.