$6.5M Wrongful Death Award Upheld by Appeals Court
A $6.5 million verdict in the wrongful death case of a 21-year-old Army Private who was accidentally electrocuted during basic training in 2004 was upheld on appeal on Tuesday.
Private Electrocuted
Pvt. Van Ryan Marcum was participating in a training exercise on a firing range in Fort Benning, Ga., when he leaned against an abandoned and insufficiently grounded metal latrine.
The latrine was later found to have a wiring short to a fan and also a faulty circuit breaker. When Marcum leaned on the latrine, “he completed the circuit and became the ground,” the appeals court ruling stated.
Wrongful Death Lawsuit
A private contractor, The Shaw Group, was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the latrine at Fort Benning. Marcum’s family sued the company for wrongful death, and a jury awarded the soldier’s family $6.5 million in damages.
Shaw filed an appeal, claiming it was not responsible for Marcum’s death, but the 8 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis disagreed and upheld the original verdict.