I hate my power company, about ready to give up.

WOW... And it doesn't snow there either. Maybe Montana isn't so bad afterall

 

I maybe turn on the heat 7 days a year and the AC 7 days a year.

 

I can guarantee you every single power company has clauses in their contracts that they explicitly do not cover anything with a power surge or power failure. I'm sure it says something to the effect that if you deem something important it is your job to supply back up power or surge protection. Bet that. Mine does.

Not saying this is that... just sayin'

 

I have gas water heater and stove and heat but my electric bill has been 98-100/month, though in summer it's a bit less. Glad I don't have your bill...oh and my thermostat is only at 66.

 

Wait until the summer when my 7 chillers kick in.

We will be going solar in the future.


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Sent from Tapatalk, so please forgive grammar and spelling

 

Yeah you should add up all your losses....and hand them a bill for a change...

 

The issue with contracts is that for the most part, they don't indemnify corporations against negligence. Largely in such cases, courts will usually rule for the plaintiff. Granted, there are variables with every case, state, and judge, but blanket waivers and clauses are not worth the paper they are printed on.

 

You meet all four of those categories... personally, I can't see how you don't have a case.

 

I am not saying the following in order to suggest that you should not press the power company for more help. I think they will give you something as they have already offered and I think they should.

Under normal circumstances, if a party has a duty to do something or to avoid something, breaches that duty, and the breach leads to actual money damages, you should be able to seek compensation.

In this case, the problem is that the claim would be for consequential damages. Consequential damages are not always easy to define, but think of it this way; if my laptop breaks, I'll be forced to not make a couple of 3reef posts. If Donald Trump's laptop breaks, he may lose a ten million dollar deal. The laptop company will, usually, fix the laptop. They will not want to fix the big real estate deal.

Because consequential damages can be so huge and unpredictable, every business on earth hates them. To avoid them, we contract out of them. We sign contracts with customers and with other businesses limiting liability to those things less speculative.

If this turned into a fight with the power company, they have several things going for them. They will probably be able to trot out the limitation of liability. They will also make the case that you also knew that the tank could die without power and that power goes out at times. You were in (they will claim) at least as good a position to avoid this problem as they were. This undermines your causation claim.

They will also point out that they have special arrangements with people who cannot afford to lose power (typically for medical reasons) and that they have more liability to those people. Everyone else is, by definition, someone who can afford the occasional power loss and who has not informed them of any special risk. This would be an attack on your duty claim.

In spite of all this, they understand bad publicity and they don't want to fight too much, since lawyers cost money. Keep squirming and get what you can out of them.

The information in this post is not to suggest any possible outcome or course of action. I just wanted to offer a view of the arguments possible.

 

I agree for the most part Servillius, however I think this rises above a simple power outage. IMO the power company was negligent by disconnecting the wrong persons power. I think we all can suffer a few hour loss without any many adverse affects. I just had a four hour outage the other day and had no losses.

I agree there may be an argument about him not taking some sort of preventative measure against power loss. Although, a couple of day loss of power is very different than a couple of hours. The prudent person would assume, excluding a natural disaster, the power company would restore power within a reasonable time frame.

We could debate this all day I suppose, however it will come down to the magistrate's opinion who is on the bench in small claims.