Jury awards $24M verdict in FPL wrongful death case

FORT MYERS — A Lee County jury awarded a Southwest Florida family nearly $24 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against Florida Power & Light.

The case involves Tricia Dominguez, which sued the utility after the 2011 death of her son, 15-year-old Justin Dominguez. The teenager died a few weeks after he sustained catastrophic injuries from climbing a bamboo stalk outside a neighbor's home that struck high-voltage FPL power lines, according to a statement.

Dominguez's attorneys, Ty Roland and Evan Lubell, contended in court that “FPL knew for years that the highly conductive bamboo posed a serious threat to the people living in the area, and yet the Florida utility did nothing to address the danger,” according to the statement.