Woman sues Uniontown, Latrobe firms after husband electrocuted on the job

A Fayette County woman whose husband was electrocuted while working on an air conditioning unit for a company in Latrobe is suing his employer and the customer.

Lauren McGalla, of Fairchance, filed the complaint on Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against Technimark LLC in Latrobe and Hranec Corp. based in Uniontown.

Her husband, James A. McGalla Jr., 33, was killed on May 29, 2024, while working on an HVAC job at Technimark’s facility on Devereux Drive in Latrobe. He had four children.

According to the company’s website, Technimark is a medical production facility.

Messages left with both companies Friday were not immediately returned.

According to the complaint, James McGalla was hired as a sheet metal worker by Hranec Corp. in November 2023. But a few months into his job, his boss, Steven Hranec, instructed him to perform electrical work, despite him having no training in that field, the lawsuit said.

On May 29, 2024, McGalla accompanied another man, Todd Miscovich, on an HVAC job at Technimark.

The men first checked the HVAC unit on the north end of the property, and Miscovich determined the unit needed a replacement coil. However, they didn’t have that part with them. The Technimark employee then directed the men to the south end of the property to look at the HVAC unit there.

The Technimark employee powered down the unit and immediately powered it back up so that Miscovich could hear the noise it was making.

He determined the unit’s compressor needed to be replaced.

“The Technimark employee agreed to the replacement work and instructed Mr. Miscovich to perform the repair on the south HVAC unit live as he would not turn the power off to the south HVAC unit because Technimark did not want to lose static pressure in the facility,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint alleged that the facility could not operate below a certain static pressure.

“Upon information and belief, Technimark did not want to stop production in its facility while Mr. Miscovich repaired the south HVAC unit,” the lawsuit said.

The unit stayed powered on, and Miscovich and McGalla began to work on it. The Technimark employee returned to the facility while they made the repairs.

“At some point during the repair work, Mr. McGalla suddenly and without warning came in contact with a 480-volt wire and was electrocuted,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit alleges that Technimark chose to put profits before the safety of the workers. It includes claims for negligence and wrongful death.

According to online records from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in December, Hranec was fined $14,000 because the equipment was not de-energized before work began and $10,000 because the company did not ensure that the person working on the unit was qualified and had proper training. The citations also noted that the employees were not using adequate electrical protective equipment.

“The employer did not ensure that a qualified person had the ability and knowledge to ensure all live electrical parts on an AAON RN Series Commercial HVAC unit were de-energized before employees were to service the equipment inside of the HVAC unit,” OSHA wrote.