Appeals court allows lawsuit to go ahead over FPL outages during Hurricane Irma
An appeals court said Wednesday that Florida Power & Light can face a class-action lawsuit stemming from power outages in Hurricane Irma, which barreled up the state in 2017.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld a MiamiDade County circuit judge’s decision that certified the lawsuit as a class action. Plaintiffs contend that the utility did not meet obligations — such as carrying out a storm “hardening” plan, replacing aging poles and adequately clearing vegetation near lines — to help prevent power outages.
The appeals court said nine plaintiffs lost power for an “extended period” after Hurricane Irma. The panel said Circuit Judge David C. Miller “accurately noted that there were potentially millions of prospective class members and that their small, individual economic claims were not large enough to justify each individual plaintiff filing a separate action.”
Wednesday’s ruling said FPL contended that “individual issues predominate in this case, and a class action is not manageable or superior to other forms of resolving this controversy.”
The underlying lawsuit, filed in 2017, has largely
been on hold in MiamiDade while the appeal played out on the classaction issue. But Miller has scheduled a trial to start Nov. 27, according to a document filed last week.
Irma made landfall in Monroe County as a Category 4 hurricane and caused widespread damage and power outages as it traveled up the state.
In a 2018 court document, FPL said: “FPL has at all times been in full compliance with the requirements of the PSC
(Public Service Commission) for vegetation management, pole inspections and replacement, and for all other elements of storm hardening as established by the state agency with the exclusive jurisdiction to establish, monitor and enforce such requirements,” the utility’s attorneys wrote in the document.
“Accordingly, there can be no basis for the imposition of liability against FPL on the bases asserted in the amended complaint.”