The family of a 5-year-old boy electrocuted in 2008 is getting a large check as the city of Mishawaka settles its lawsuit.
Izaya Baiz-Hickey was electrocuted on Thanksgiving Day in 2008 when he crawled into an unlocked electrical transformer box. He died instantly.
As WSBT was the first to report, one of two lawsuits has been settled.
"If somehow, someway, someone could turn back the hands of time and give them Izaya back, they would take him back in a heartbeat and I would be happy for that to happen. None of us would be sitting here," said the attorney for the family, Dan Pfiefer.
Mishawaka police said negligence on the part of the family played no part in the boy's death. He had not been known to leave the yard before, and it was a short span of time between when the boy went outside and when he was electrocuted.
There are still no answers about why the electrical box was unlocked, and while no one has admitted fault, on Monday there was something for Izaya's family to cling to:
"The city of Mishawaka has, as I say, stepped up,” Pfiefer said. “They have accepted their portion of the responsibility. They have paid the maximum that the law requires them to pay.”
The family sued the city of Mishawaka, Carriage House Apartments and Gene B. Glick Management for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress after Izaya's death. That unlocked electrical box belonged to Mishawaka Utilities. There is a $700,000 cap on lawsuits with municipalities. Mishawaka will pay $700,000 dollars.
“Safety policies and procedures are in place to prevent such incidents.” said James Schrader, general manager of Mishawaka Utilities, in a statement released to the press on Monday. “Mishawaka Utilities’ safety record is among the best in the nation; public and worker safety having always been a major emphasis and concern of all our managers and employees. That is one reason why this tragedy is so devastating to all of us in Mishawaka, Mishawaka Utilities and its Electric Division. I have personally supervised a thorough re-inspection of every electric box in the city to ensure that all electric boxes are safe, secure and properly locked. We hope that the settlement of this case will bring some closure to Izaya’s family to whom we again express our sincere condolences.”
Still, this is not the end for Pfiefer. The lawsuit with Carriage House Apartments and Gene B. Glick Management is still ongoing.
"As I have been involved in the case and done a lot of investigating, it is clear to me that the apartment complex bears a tremendous amount of responsibility for this," said Pfiefer.
Pfiefer said they have witnesses who say the transformer box had been unlocked for up to two-and-a-half years. He claimed the apartment complex should have been doing regular checks on the box and if they had they would have found it was unlocked. WSBT tried to get a response from the apartment management company, but they didn't return our phone calls. Pfiefer said he expects this will go to trial in August.
