Satellite dish worker blown off roof, suit says

CHARLESTON - A Jackson County man says the electric shock caused by a faulty ground wire blew him off a customer's roof as he worked on a satellite dish.

Robert Starcher is suing his employer Skylink and the owners of the Wirt County house where the alleged incident took place, Michael and Jerry Jones.

His lawsuit was entered into Kanawha Circuit Court Oct. 19 and says he was employed as an independent contractor in 2004 Aug. 13-Oct. 28.

On Oct. 28, the complaint says, "The plaintiff was electrocuted due to a faulty ground (wire) while working on a satellite dish at the home of the defendants Michael and Jerry Jones, causing him to fall approximately 25 feet off a roof."

He blames Skylink, also known as Video Outpost, for negligently exposing him to injury.

Starcher adds that he has experienced medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, annoyance, inconvenience, loss of ability to enjoy life and severe and permanent injury which has caused the loss of earnings and earning capacity.

J. Michael Ranson of Ranson Law Offices in Charleston is representing Starcher, who also claims that Skylink had been notified that a faulty ground wire existed at the Jones home but it did not notify or warn him.

Judge Charles King has been assigned the case.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 06-C-2198