Peeved CUC clients troop to court

About a hundred people, mostly those whose power had been cut, trooped to the federal court yesterday afternoon, supposedly to attend a status conference for the reopening of a 1993 class lawsuit against the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson, however, called the counsel involved in the lawsuit to his chamber for a conference.

Led by congressmen Stanley Torres, Ray Tebuteb, Manny Tenorio, and Ben Seman, the people who came for the hearing waited for the result of the conference outside the Horiguchi Building.

After a few minutes, attorney Stephanie Flores, counsel for the disgruntled CUC customers named as plaintiffs in the 1993 lawsuit, emerged from the building and talked with Torres.

Flores then announced what transpired in the judge’s chamber, saying that the judge had asked her and CUC counsel Edward Manibusan to talk and come up with an agreement.

Flores said that since they just filed the motion, CUC has to look at it.

The lawyer said if she and Manibusan do not reach an agreement, a hearing will be held this Friday at 11am regarding their motion asking the court to order CUC to explain why it should not be held in contempt for violating a 1994 federal court order.

The issue arose from a 1993 case, when some customers sued CUC for disconnecting their utility services without proper notice. CUC and the plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement. The court approved the agreement in June 1994.

The settlement prohibited CUC from doing certain things with regard to future disconnections. The court specifically prevented the utility agency from disconnecting customers without mailing or personally delivering proper notices prior to disconnection.

In her motion, Flores asserted that CUC violated the terms of the settlement agreement. She submitted in court declarations of four different customers to back her claim that CUC implemented disconnections without any warning.

Torres said some of the people who showed up at Horiguchi had come to his office and asked for help about their high power bill and disconnection issues.

Torres said others just came after learning about the hearing in the newspapers.

“Everybody got hurt by this drastic increase. I don’t mind an increase, but they should do it gradually,” Torres stressed.

Vicente T. Reyes, a resident of Dandan, stated that on Oct. 31, 2006, he disputed his billing for $157.79 and paid his undisputed bill on Oct. 31.

Reyes said that on Nov. 14, he received his November billing, and the disputed amount was his only past due amount.

He said his due date for the remaining bill was Nov. 24, 2006.

“Without giving me a disconnection notice, and not having an undisputed past due to my knowledge, I was disconnected today (Nov. 21) which was three days before my billing due date,” Reyes said.

“My family is currently without power, and we cannot afford all the extra charges and reconnection fee,” he said.

Reyes’s wife was among the people who trooped to the federal court yesterday.