Restaurateur's family sues over electrocution

Peter Kanellos was fatally injured while fixing a sign at Three Coins Restaurant. His family claims the property's owner should have made sure the site was safe.

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001

CLEARWATER -- The family of a Palm Harbor man electrocuted in 1999 while working on a neon sign outside his Largo restaurant is suing the company that owns the Largo property on which the business sits.

Peter Kanellos, 55, was hooking two wires together on Sept. 17, 1999 at Three Coins Restaurant, 1700 Missouri Ave. S when he was jolted with electricity, Pinellas County sheriff's officials said.

His son, Elias Kanellos, 21 at the time, was nearby and pulled him away from the wires, receiving a shock himself, officials said. Paramedics performed CPR on the elder Kanellos and took him to Morton Plant Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, they say.

Louis Kardassis, who has owned the property including the building on Missouri Avenue since 1982, said he was not aware of the lawsuit filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court. His company, Three Coins Inc., purchased the restaurant from the Kanellos family in June 2000.

"What can I say?" Kardassis said Tuesday. "I'm sorry it happened. He should have been more careful. If you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be messing around."

The suit was filed by Kanellos' widow, Anastasia, on behalf of her and two of his children, Georgia and Elia. It claims the company should have maintained the area in a safe way and warned others of any hazardous conditions.

Peter Kanellos lived on Downing Place, just west of U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor.

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