Short version: yes, but it's not easy. "To win, New York ratepayers have to show that their power company was not just slow or inefficient. Instead, Kreppein said, under a 1985 New York Court of Appeals ruling called Strauss v. Belle Realty, electric company customers must establish that the utility was grossly negligent — that its conduct was way outside the bounds of reasonableness." Alison Frankel at Reuters.

  • technogeekagain

    This is America. You can sue anyone for anything, at least until the judge throws you out on your ear for abusing the system.

    Winning the suit is another matter entirely.

  • benenglish

    Just my opinion, obviously, but a great deal more time is going to have to pass before any reasonable finding of gross negligence could be remotely possible.  Last hurricane, my power was out for well over two weeks.  Last ice storm, just short of two weeks.  My grandma, in only-semi-rural Alabama was without power for 6 weeks when hurricane Frederick blew through.  Not enough time has yet passed for *anybody* to pick up a bullhorn and start protesting as I saw on the evening news today.

    That being said, it sure does look like some of the power companies up there are being far, far too inefficient so I can cut some slack to the complainers.  Some.  Not a lot.

    Two observations for the future –

    Is anybody still dumb enough to not have two weeks worth of “stuff” in their dwelling?  If your house was blown away, I understand, but the people in high-rises without water damage to their apartment but simply without power who have run out of food and water absolutely mystify me.

    Is anybody going to be willing to spend the money over future years to bury utilities and make them more weather proof?  Unfortunately, I know the answer to that one.  I live where hurricanes hit occasionally and awareness is always high yet even here the public simply won’t pay the money to properly bury power lines and other utilities.

  • Terri Sweeney

    The negligent power “company” in question is LIPA, the Long Island Power Authority, a NY state owned quasi corporation, notoriously difficult to sue.

    New Yorkers decided to drive the previous electric company, Long Island Lighting, bankrupt by denying them the final approval to operate their Shoreham LI nuclear plant AFTER they had borrowed and spent billions to build and complete it. Thus the incompetent LIPA was born.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Vanasco/728395557 Jonathan Vanasco

    I don’t think it will be hard to argue that LIPA,etc were “grossly negligent”.  The Governor has already started calling them that , is trying to pressure upper management to resign, and has suggested that the state consider taking over the companies because of complete mismanagement .

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Vanasco/728395557 Jonathan Vanasco

    I don’t think it will be hard to argue that LIPA,etc were “grossly negligent”.  The Governor has already started calling them that , is trying to pressure upper management to resign, and has suggested that the state consider taking over the companies because of complete mismanagement .

  • RayCornwall

    How about New Jersey victims? I’m reasonably happy with the length of time it took (6 days- we were fortunate to be out of town during 4 of them) to get power back on considering the damage around here, but I know some people who have been out longer with little explanation from their power company. 

    And if you’re curious why I wasn’t foaming out the mouth for being without power for 6 days, you’d have to see the damage in my town, Toms River. We had massive flooding as close as a few blocks away, and we have tons of downed trees in the area. We avoided some of the damage that nearby towns and border islands suffered, but the damage to the power system was obvious. We had crews from Virginia and Alabama here helping the local crews to get power on. I’d love to see the power company in this area, Jersey Central P&L, do some follow-up analysis on shortening the delays after this storm, but I’m hoping it won’t take a lawsuit to prompt them.