As reported in the New York Law Journal on June 23, 2025, I tried a case before a Nassau County jury during a 6 week trial to determine who was responsible for the electrocution death of a 49 year old husband and father of three children. The decedent was a home improvement contractor who was electrocuted in the attic of a house while replacing a bathroom ceiling exhaust fan.

 

    The Newman defendants were the owners of a house in the Town of Oyster Bay undergoing renovations in 2014. In 1998 the defendant, Call-Brite Electrical Contracting, Inc. (“Call-Brite”), operating under the license of Master Electrician, Gerald F. Palazzo (“Palazzo”), to install a new electrical panel box and 32 new circuit breakers in their basement.  Sixteen years later, on June 20, 2014, Richard F. Arcuri, Sr. (“Decedent”) was electrocuted while working in the attic crawlspace above the master bedroom of the Premises.  He died after coming in contact with an energized high hat in the master bedroom which was supplied by an illegal ungrounded branch circuit that had been installed in 1994 by a defunct, uninsured, judgment proof contractor - San Brook Contracting, Inc (San Brook). The Newman's settled out pre-trial paying the full proceeds of their $1.5M homeowners insurance coverage. The non-settling defendants (Call-Brite & Palazzo) argued that the lighting fixtures and wiring were negligently installed by contractor San Brook in 1994 and contended that the decedent was also negligent for failing to turn off the circuit breaker at the panel box prior to installing/wiring a bathroom ceiling exhaust fan.

 

    We claimed that defendants Call-Brite and Palazzo negligently installed an unlabeled panel box that contained an improper circuit breaker supplying electricity on an ungrounded branch circuit to lighting fixtures in violation of the National Electrical Code and Town of Oyster Bay Codes.  We also claimed that defendant Palazzo, a licensed master electrician employed by Call-Brite, allowed an unlicensed electrician to perform the electrical work at the Newman's without the requisite participation or supervision required by the Town of Oyster Bay electrical code. The defense counsel argued that an electrician hired to upgrade an electrical panel box is not responsible for inspecting or in any way changing the existing branch circuits throughout the home. Moreover, Palazzo contended that this electrical work was routine and did not require his supervision of the unlicensed electrician assigned this job.