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Builders ordered to pay $2.5 million over death

Monday, June 11, 2001 | 10:40 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- A jury awarded $2.47 million in damages to the widow of a plumber who was electrocuted while working on an expansion of Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino.

The nine-member jury in Superior Court found contractors Morse Diesel International Inc. and McAdam Electric Co. liable for the Aug. 20, 1997, death of Edward Florence, 49, of Turnersville.

Caesars, which also was named as a defendant in the civil suit brought by Florence's widow, was cleared of liability.

Florence himself was found 10 percent liable, reducing the $2.75 million total award to $2.47 million.

Florence was lifting pipes into place during construction of a 26-story hotel tower when a chain hoist he was using came in contact with a live 480-volt wire.

Witnesses testified that the wire had been present at the work site for six days and that safety representatives of Morse Diesel and McAdam Electric had done nothing about it.

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