By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE JAMAICA Public Service Co. (JPSCo) is to pay $3.2 million in damages to the parents of a 16-year-old boy who was electrocuted in November 1997 when he came in contact with high tension wires dangling from a JPSCo post on Berrydale Lands, near Discovery Bay, St. Ann.
The boy's parents filed a suit in the Supreme Court against the JPSCo. alleging negligence and the light-and-power company accepted liability.
Miss Justice Gloria Smith assessed damages yesterday and awarded the parents, Philip Ward and Christine Gabbidon of Jackson Lodge, near Discovery Bay, St. Ann, $3.1 million in general damages and $121,000 in special damages. The general damages included loss of future earnings and loss of expectancy of life.
Damion Philip Ward, a student, was walking along a footpath on the Berrydale Lands, when he came in contact with high tension wires dangling from a JPSCo post and was electrocuted. The lands were occupied by Kaiser Bauxite Co. and the area where the boy was walking was near to the Tretzel Clinic.
The parents contended in the lawsuit that the JPSCo was negligent because it failed to maintain the wires or to warn persons using the footpath, of the danger posed by the wire.
Atttorney-at-law Humphrey McPherson who represented the parents was seeking more than $13 million in damages but attorney-at-law Ransford Braham, for the JPSCo., opposed the application on the ground that there was no basis on which the court could award that amount.
