With LIPA working to restore power to some 14,000 customers in the dark 15 days after Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, the power company is now facing legal action.
According to a report in Newsday, Melville attorney Kenneth Mollins was planning to file a class action lawsuit Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Nassau County against the Long Island Power Authority and National Grid. The suit charges the companies with negligence, reckless disregard and intentional failure, Newsday said.
“Long Islanders are being kept in the dark by LIPA,” Mollins told Newsday. “Long Islanders are tired of waiting. They want their power and want to know what’s going on.”
Specifics on the level of monetary damages being sought were not made public. Mollins, however, told Newsday that the class action suit could be “the biggest class-action ever filed.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of public rebukes against LIPA following Hurricane Sandy. The power provider has been chastised by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and numerous federal, state and local officials for what they said was LIPA’s poor response and poor communication as it worked to turn the lights back on across Nassau and Suffolk counties.
On Saturday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s frustration with LIPA led him to sever communications with LIPA executives, and instead work directly with local substations across the County in an effort restore power to some 33,000 customers.
By Tuesday morning, slightly less than 4,000 LIPA customers in Suffolk were still without power. In Nassau, 11,265 customers remain without power.
