ST. LOUIS (AP) _ A $1.8 million suit has been filed on behalf of the daughter of a paralyzed former athlete who died of exposure after the wheelchair lift in his van malfunctioned and trapped him.

Mark Hemphill, 23, was found Nov. 27, 1982, slumped in the driver's seat of a van outside his apartment in a complex for the disabled.

The lift was stuck in an upright position, blocking the van's doors, and Hemphill apparently had been inside three days when his body was discovered, said Christopher J. Holthaus, attorney for Hemphill's 9-year-old daughter, Tiffany.

The suit filed Friday on behalf of Tiffany seeks $800,000 in actual damages and more than $1 million in punitive damages.

Defendants are Braun Manufacturing Co., the American Hospital Corp., two subsidiaries and two individuals who supervised the sale and installed the lift.

Hemphill, a former Southern Illinois University athlete, was paralyzed from the neck down during a football game at the Carbondale, Ill., school in 1979.