The worth of a human life

How much is a human life worth?

To the family and friends of someone who's died, the answer is: incalculable.

That certainly was clear on Friday when Andre Harmon described the loss caused by the death of his 75-year-old mother, Juanita Harmon, who died June 5, 2013 in the rubble of the Salvation Army thrift store crushed by the collapse of an adjacent building being demolished near 22^nd and Market Streets.

The goal of a civil trial, however, is to quantify the unquantifiable and that was what plaintiffs' lawyers began doing Monday for Harmon and the six others who died as a result of the collapse and 12 people who survived with physical and emotional injuries.

Lansdale economist Andrew C. Verzilli handled the mathematical analysis of the remainder of Harmon's life had she lived.

Questioned by Robert J. Mongeluzzi, the lawyer for Andre Harmon and his brother, Angelo, Verzilli said actuarial tables say that a woman aged 75 is expected to live an average 12.9 years longer.

Juanita Harmon was a retired secretary who worked at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and at the time of her death was receiving Social Security retirement income totaling $11,600 a year. With cost of living adjustments, Verzilli said, Harmon would have received a total of about $149,800 in Social Security income over the rest of her life.

Verzilli also calculated the economic value of Harmon's housekeeping and cooking at her West Philadelphia home, where at least one of her sons was also living. At 14 hours a week at $13 an hour for nine years – the amount of remaining life where she would likely be able to do household chores – the economist came up with an additional lost income of $85,176.

The grand total had Harmon lived: $234,977, according to Verzilli.

That's only the lost economic impact of Harmon's death. The Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury will also be asked to compensate Harmon's estate for the pain and suffering associated with her death.

While Lancaster forensic pathologist Wayne K. Ross could not suggest a dollar amount to the jury, he told the jury "she died a slow, excruciating death."

Ross estimated that Harmon, body folded at the waist in the collapse, was conscious and she survived about six to eight hours in the rubble before she died.

Ross testified that the collapse broke a vertebra in Harmon's neck but did not sever her spinal cord. Had she been found sooner, Ross said, she likely could have survived.

Instead, Ross told the jury, blood from injured tissue around the broken vertebra gathered and exerted increased pressure on the spinal cord until the signal to her lungs to breathe ceased and she suffocated.

Monday's testimony will be typical of what's to come until sometime later this month when the jury decides the amount of money damages to award to the survivors of the collapse and the relatives of the dead.

Last Tuesday, the same jury returned liability verdicts against the Salvation Army; New York real estate speculator Richard Basciano and his STB Investments Corp.; and Center City architect Plato A. Marinakos Jr., hired by Basciano to monitor demolition of the building that destroyed the thrift store.

The jury found that Salvation Army officers ignored warnings of the danger of a possible collapse from Basciano's top aide, did not investigate the warnings or pass on information to the workers and customers in the store.

The jury found that Basciano cut corners and hired an inexperienced, incompetent architect and that Marinakos did the same when he recommended North Philadelphia contractor Griffin Campbell for the project.

Campbell and his excavator operator, Sean Benschop, were also found liable for causing the disaster but the jury apportioned each just one percent of the responsibility.

Campbell and Benschop were the only two people criminally convicted as a result of the collapse. Both are serving long prison terms and are indigent.