FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - A Florida jury has ordered Florida Power & Light to pay nearly $24 million to the family of a teenage boy who was electrocuted while climbing bamboo near power lines.
The Palm Beach Post reports that the Lee County jury decided Wednesday that the mother of 15-year-old Justin Dominguez should receive $8.75 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages. FPL officials said in a statement that they're evaluating further legal options.
West Palm Beach attorney Julie Littky-Rubin, who represented Dominguez's mother, says FPL had been warned by its own inspectors in 2008 that bamboo near the family's Fort Myers home was too close to power lines. The plants were never removed, and Dominguez was fatally injured while climbing the bamboo three years later.
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Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, http://www.pbpost.com
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