A seven-year fight over liability for an incident involving an Oncor Electric Delivery Co. power line that left a Young County man quadriplegic won’t end with a Dallas jury’s $44 million verdict that was returned Tuesday, as the utility company prepares to challenge the outcome.
Dallas County District Judge Gena Slaughter hadn’t yet entered final judgment as of Thursday, and Oncor issued a statement to The Lawbook that when she does, it’s “confident a final judgment will ultimately be in our favor.” The utility company called the 2015 tree trimming incident that caused James Stacey Taylor’s injuries “tragic and distressing,” but noted that the jury agreed with Oncor that Taylor “ignored Texas law when he got too close to a power line he knew to be dangerous, and that he chose to not contact Oncor about his planned work.”
“There is no exception or excuse for ignoring the law, which strictly prohibits this kind of hazardous activity, and as Texas courts have said, is intended ‘to ensure the safety of individuals engaged in activities near high voltage lines,’” the statement reads.
Oncor has also pointed to section 752.008 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, which governs liability for damages stemming from incidents with high voltage overhead lines, in arguing that it has statutory indemnity.
“If a violation of this chapter results in physical or electrical contact with a high voltage overhead line, the person, firm, corporation, or association that committed the violation is liable to the owner or operator of the line for all damages to the facilities and for all liability that the owner or operator incurs as a result of the contact,” the statute reads.
Taylor’s attorney, Sean Breen of Howry Breen & Herman, told The Lawbook that while it’s true the jury found Taylor violated section 752 — by coming within six feet of the power line without the requisite 48-hour notice to Oncor — the jury also found that Oncor had interfered with Taylor’s ability to comply with that law and therefore his noncompliance was excused.
“We established Oncor was negligent and made mistakes, and some employees and corporate representatives admitted to the jury they should accept responsibility,” Breen said of the testimony given during the two-week trial. “But the powers that be in [Oncor’s] general counsel’s office and legal team just couldn’t bring themselves to do that for the jury.”
“In this case, the power company invited and encouraged Taylor, wrongly, to engage in trimming and removal of trees within six feet of a power line, and the jury found even though he technically violated the statute, that because he was encouraged and invited to violate it by Oncor, he was excused.”
Part of the jury’s $44 million award was $3.5 million in actual damages for Taylor because “Oncor’s unconscionable conduct was committed knowingly.”
The jury determined Oncor was 75 percent liable for the incident and Taylor was 25 percent liable.
The series of events that led to Taylor’s injuries began after two hackberry trees on his property in Graham, Texas, grew into and around an Oncor utility line that bisected his property and provided power to his neighbor’s home. Eventually, those trees died and started dropping limbs on the power lines, leading to outages for his neighbor.
Breen told the jury that Taylor had called Oncor on four occasions asking for the line to be moved off his property, as it wasn’t his service line, and noting the issue with the dying trees dropping branches on the line. Breen said the jury heard testimony that a third-party vendor operates Oncor’s call center and has a script to follow when complaints are lodged.
“The script doesn’t take into account that it wasn’t the Taylors’ line, so the operators kept saying it’s their responsibility to trim or remove the trees to protect this service line and that they could be responsible for the damages,” Breen said. “And that’s not true, and that’s not the law.”
The jury also heard that private tree trimmers refused to do the dangerous work because the hackberry trees were entangled in the lines.
Taylor was injured on June 27, 2015, suffered burns over 18 percent of his body and was taken to the hospital via air ambulance.
It wasn’t until 2017, when the limbs entangled in the line fell and brought the line down with it, that Oncor took action.
“It took Oncor one hour and $1,500 to fix this problem that paralyzed this man and that was never his issue,” Breen said. “That’s why this jury was so upset.”
Taylor filed this lawsuit on Feb. 11, 2016. Breen said many things caused the seven-year wait for trial, including a jurisdictional appeal that went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court and took about three years, a mistrial that happened when too many members of the jury pool — citing economic hardship — told the court they couldn’t afford to miss three weeks of work in exchange for the $40 daily pay, and an appeal to the Fifth Court of Appeals as to whether that daily pay could be increased.
“I will tell you one thing, this company has such incredible hubris about this case that they never made any type of offer of settlement,” Breen said. “They actually said they would forgive their claim for attorney fees against Taylor if he would walk away. No offer. That’s just unbelievable.”
Breen said he intends to continue representing Taylor as Oncor fights the verdict.
“I’ll likely get someone to help with the appeal,” he said. “And there’s no shortage of people volunteering to help.”
Taylor is also represented by Christopher Lavorato of Howry Breen & Herman, Brian P. Lauten of Dallas and Robert Swafford of Strike for Cause Jury Consultants.
Oncor is represented by Andrew Szygenda and Thomas F. Lillard of Lillard Wise Szyngenda and John C. Stewart of Oncor.
The case number is DC-16-01615.