FEDERAL JURY GIVES DAMAGES IN FATAL ACCIDENT AT WORK SITE

Damages of $500,000 have been awarded the family of a Zalma man in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against a Texas-based toolmaker.

But the family of the man, David L. Myers, will get no more than $125,000, since the jury found Myers 75 percent liable for his death.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau took almost six hours Monday to reach its decision regarding the death of Myers. The verdict, which found toolmaker Cooper Industries 25 percent liable and Myers 75 percent liable, was reached at the end of a five-day trial.

Although the case was heard in federal court, Missouri law was used to determine a verdict because Myers' death took place in the state, said Donald Dickerson, the Myers' family attorney.

Myers, 28, was involved in an industrial accident on Feb. 17, 1995. Myers, a rock drill operator, was working at the Arab Stone rock quarry in southwest Bollinger County when his shirt sleeve became entangled in some of the drill's moving parts. Myers was strangled to death.

Last year Ronda Myers filed the lawsuit claiming that her husband died from Cooper's negligence in making the pneumatic drilling equipment that caused the death. If the drilling equipment had been designed with plastic shields to protect against incidental contact with the machine's moving parts, Myers might not have died, Dickerson said.

The attorney also said that a lack of adequate operating instructions and an emergency shutoff option contributed to the death.

Attorneys for Cooper Industries stated that Myers, who had worked in the quarry for six months, failed to take reasonable safety precautions.

Quarry manager Earl Stratton testified that, based on his experience, Myers could have held the drilling equipment improperly, leading to his death.

Since no one witnessed the accident, attorneys could only build their cases on circumstantial evidence, Dickerson said.

Myers' widow had asked for damages of more than $75,000 to compensate for the loss of her husband and the emotional loss to her 17-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

In federal lawsuits, a specific amount of monetary damages is not given, but the amount must be above $75,000 for a U.S. District Court to hear the case, Dickerson said.

Based on notes in the court records sent by the jury to U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel, the jury had problems understanding how to award monetary damages by percentages.

Assessing a percentage of liability has been part of civil lawsuits in Missouri since 1984, when the state adopted a comparative fault law.

In his experience as an attorney and judge, comparative fault law can be confusing to juries, said William Syler, presiding judge for the state's 32nd Judicial Circuit.

He recalled a trial when a jury reduced its monetary damages award to reflect the percentage of liability by the plaintiff. The jury had misunderstood the judge's instructions, said Syler, who was then an attorney. Instructions in comparative liability state that the jury decides financial damages awards. After that, the judge subtracts a percentage based on liability.

But confusion has caused some juries to do the math before the judge, and then the judge still lowers the monetary award, Syler said.

If juries do not understand instructions, a judge can do little more than tell jurors to read them again, Syler said.