AUGUSTA - In a bipartisan vote, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee on Tuesday advanced a bill from Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, to limit liability exemptions for electric utilities like Central Maine Power (CMP) when their negligence of overhead high-voltage lines contributes to personal injury or damage to facilities. Most other businesses, including gas utilities, do not currently share the same exemption regarding their infrastructure.
The bill stems from 2002 incident in which Bryan Smith, an 18-year-old boatyard worker in Penobscot, was nearly killed and suffered permanent injuries from contact with a CMP line that was kept at 30 feet of clearance, despite repeated requests to move it to the legally required 45.5 feet. CMP was at first required by the courts to pay over $6 million in damages, but that decision was later reversed by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on a technicality. In its 2013 opinion, the court determined that CMP could not be held responsible for damages.
"This bill will help prevent electrocutions by creating greater parity between electricity and gas utilities regarding their liability for the hazards associated with their infrastructure, particularly when poor maintenance leads to tragedy," said Berry.
Former Penobscot Boatyard owner Andrea Devereux testified in support of the measure at a public hearing last week.
"This was a tragic and devastating experience," said Devereux. "I would give anything to have been able to protect Bryan more, but I can't do that. I also can't ask you to go back and change the law so that things turned out differently for me, or for my family, or our business. I am just here today because I hope you will change the law, so that CMP at least shares a little bit more responsibility for the hazards their lines can create when they are poorly and illegally maintained."
"The line was installed in 1951 and it had not been changed between then and 2002, when the accident happened," said Barry Mills, the attorney who represented the boatyard, at the bills public hearing. "There were at least three occasions when CMP knew that the line was too low."
The bill faces further votes in the House and Senate in the coming weeks.
Berry represents House District 55: Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Swan Island and most of Richmond. He previously served from 2006-2014, the final two years as House majority leader, and returned to the House in 2016.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Berry], c. 812-1111