Family of Missouri Trench Collapse Victim Awarded $6M

A judge has awarded more than $6 million to the family of a city worker in Perry, Mo., who was killed in a trench collapse in 2008.

Circuit Judge Robert Clayton II ruled that the superintendent of the northeast Missouri town “breached a duty of care” to 29-year-old Timothy Epperson.

Epperson and another city worker were fixing a sewer line when the sides of the trench collapsed. Epperson died; the other worker survived.

Epperson’s widow filed suit on behalf of the couple’s three sons.

Perry City Attorney Joseph Brannon declined comment to the Hannibal Courier-Post.

Information from: Hannibal Courier-Post, http://www.hannibal.net