Overview
- A Philadelphia County jury awarded $15.3 million to the estate of Ashokkumar Patel, finding Pace-O-Matic and Miele Manufacturing negligent in his 2020 killing during a Hazleton store robbery.
- Pace-O-Matic says it will appeal and asserts that only $3 million of the damages were assigned to the company and its manufacturing partner.
- Plaintiffs argued the companies placed cash-intensive skill game terminals in retail sites without required safeguards, exposing workers to foreseeable violence.
- The verdict sheet also listed the convicted shooter, Jafet Rodriguez, and the premises owner as liable; Rodriguez is incarcerated after a Luzerne County conviction.
- Pace-O-Matic contends the games at the location were inoperable and calls the ruling a dangerous precedent that misplaces responsibility for criminal acts.