SDG&E Sued by San Diegans
Local businesses filed a class action suit against the power company
AP
Shoppers line up to buy supplies at the Cardiff Seaside Market in Encinitas. Restaurants lost hundreds of dollars in food supplies.
Two San Diego men have filed a class action lawsuit against Arizona Public Service and San Diego Gas & Electric claiming the companies negligently operated their power plants causing a power failure which caused the plaintiffs food and other perishable items to be destroyed.
Antonino Busalacchi and Anis Ben Adj Yahia filed the lawsuit in federal court on Sept. 12, according to court records.
Yahia owns Baba Foods, which manufactures hummus and pita chips. Busalacchi is suing on behalf of all San Diego County residents. They lost $15,000 worth of food during the power outage.
"We have like four-five pallets that we need to throw out of hummus, because it stay five, almost 10 hours with out refrigeration," Babas said
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs are suing on behalf of all others similarly situated.
Attorney Michael Rott says the Arizona Public Service Company, which operates the substation where the black-out apparently started, and SDG and E, were negligent.
If a judge or jury agrees, millions of San Diego and Orange County residents would be reimbursed for groceries that had to buy after the blackout.
The outage occurred after an electrical worker removed a piece of monitoring equipment at a power substation in southwest Arizona, according to officials at Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service Company.
Arizona Public Service had "no comment" about the lawsuit.
The outage knocked out power in a region of almost 6 million people in the Southwest, bringing San Diego to a near-standstill and leaving people in the surrounding desert to swelter in late-summer heat.
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