PITTSBURGH — West Penn Power has appealed a $109 million verdict for the surviving family of a Western Pennsylvania woman who was fatally burned by a downed power line in her backyard as her two young daughters and mother-in-law looked on. The jury award earlier this month in the death of 39-year-old Carrie Goretzka, of Hempfield Township, was the largest ever in Allegheny County.

But now West Penn attorneys contend Common Pleas Judge Michael Della Vecchia erred, among other ways, by allowing the jury to see “gruesome” photos of Goretzka, which prejudiced the jury more than they helped the panel understand her injuries.

Goretzka, 39, was killed when she went outside to make a cellphone call when she saw a backyard tree burning because the line had again overheated, cutting power to the house in 2009. Michael Goretzka had complained about the line failing at least twice before and the jury agreed those failures were caused by West Penn technicians who didn’t properly clean the lines before splicing them, which prompted the line to overheat and fail.