Sauder Schelkopf is investigating litigation on behalf of individuals and businesses impacted by a power failure that affected over 60,000 customers on July 13, 2019, on the West Side of Manhattan. As reported by the New York Times, “Con Edison believed that the blackout was caused by a mechanical issue that could be resolved in a relatively short period of time. Con Edison said that the power failed around 7 p.m. and that about 62,000 customers were in the dark, mainly on the West Side. The Fire Department said the failures stretched from 72nd Street to the West 40s, and from Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River. . . . A spokesman for Con Edison said the failures apparently stemmed from a problem at a substation on West 49th Street. . . . Most Broadway shows — including ‘Moulin Rouge,’ ‘Hadestown,’ ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ and ‘Aladdin’ — canceled their performances.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statement which read in part, “While fortunately no injuries occurred as a result of this incident, the fact that it happened at all is unacceptable. I am directing the Department of Public Service to investigate and identify the exact cause of the outages to help prevent an incident of this magnitude from happening again.” As reported by Bloomberg, “Cuomo, expressing frustration over what he described as repeated failures on ConEd’s system, said in an interview with ABC News that he was sending his ‘top power team’ to investigate the incident.” The Wall Street Journal reported that “Consolidated Edison Inc. said in a statement that the relay protection system that is supposed to isolate faulty cables failed to shut down a 13,000-volt cable on West 64th Street. Power networks covering 42 blocks of the city then went down. After ‘analyzing the large volumes of data,’ the utility said it had ‘identified the issues with the relay protection system.'”
Experience Matters
Sauder Schelkopf is experienced representing property owners and businesses in a variety of litigation including a $10.3 million settlement related to the Outer Banks’ evacuation. Read about that case here.
We Want to Hear from You
If your business was disrupted, lost revenue or you are out travel expenses as the result of the power outage, contact the lawyers at Sauder Schelkopf by filling out the form on this page.