Apr 10, 2000 - 10:16 PM

100 New York Businesses Sue Utility for $50 Million Over Blackout

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - One hundred Manhattan businesses sued Con Edison for $50 million Monday, saying the utility's discrimination and negligence led to a summer power blackout that resulted in financial losses. Fernando Oliver, a lawyer for the businesses, said the July 6 outage left more than 200,000 individuals and businesses in Manhattan's Washington Heights area without electricity for up to five days.

"We will establish that Con Ed was grossly negligent," Oliver said.

The power failures occurred after temperatures soared past 100 degrees on July 5 and 6 - a heat wave that had been forecast for several days.

Many businesses had to close their doors for up to two weeks after the power failure and others went bankrupt, Oliver said.

A call to the utility was not immediately returned.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIVQC1WW6C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 10, 2000