Town Refers Electrocution Lawsuit To Insurance Firm

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said this week the town will refer a civil liability lawsuit filed against it over the July 2004 electrocution death of a painter at the municipally-owned Newtown Meeting House to the town’s insurance carrier for review.

The lawsuit will be referred to the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency (CIRMA), which is an insurance pool comprised of municipalities in the state, he said.

“I don’t see how we have liability…I find it hard to see where we would have any liability,” Mr Rosenthal said.

The estate of the painter who was electrocuted while working at Newtown Meeting House in July 2004 has sued the town, seeking money damages for the man’s death. In a lawsuit filed July 19 in Danbury Superior Court, Virginia Martinez of Port Chester, N.Y., who is the executrix of the estate of Ivan Patricio Tenecela, sued the town and also The Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown, Inc, a nonprofit group that operates and maintains the meeting house for the town.

The town has an August 22 court return date in the lawsuit through which the estate seeks money damages exceeding $15,000.

In the July 26, 2004, accident, in which an aluminum ladder made contact with an 8,000-volt power line on the south side of the meeting house, Mr Tenecela, 25, of Port Chester, N.Y., died due to accidental electrocution. Victor Saquisela, 21, also of Port Chester, was seriously burned. Both Mr Tenecela and Mr Saquisela were originally from Ecuador.

The two men were among a work crew which was completing a repainting project on the meeting house at  31 Main Street, which formerly served as Newtown Congregational Church.

Following an investigation, the federal agency that regulates worker safety fined the painting firm that was working at the meeting house $3,000 for the industrial accident. That fine is the result of a legal settlement reached between the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Peter Campbell, the head of Campbell Quality Painting, LLC, of Weston. The firm was fined for three serious violations of the US Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit alleges that the town was negligent in Mr Tenecela’s death for various reasons. The plaintiff alleges that the town failed to inspect the premises to discover that Campbell’s working conditions were dangerous; failed to warn Mr Tenecela about those dangerous conditions; hired Campbell without making inquiries into its safety record or safety practices; and failed to hire a competent painting company.