Family of 11-year-old boy who died in Texas cold snap file $100m lawsuit against power companies

[civilwarbuff]

To me, if a company in charge of electrical systems gets recommendations to upgrade their system to deal with inevitable disasters (that were predicted), REFUSES to make those upgrades and it causes death, then I think they are criminally negligent.

I always find it humorous when people from another country try to tell us what our laws mean. The bolded part shoots you down. Not following a 'recommendation' is not a criminal offense.....not in this country at least. In this country public utilities are governed by boards that tell them what they MUST do. Recommendations are just that and nothing more. They violated no law therefore they are not CRIMINALLY negligent.

This affected their share price quite negatively.

Actually the cost of repairing the system typically drives the price of a utility down just after the occurence. Nothing new or surprising there......Sorta like a fast food stock going down because of tainted food.....re: Chipotle

 

[Aldebaran]

I see the conservative propaganda that blamed all of this on wind turbines was a very solid investment. Most conservatives will spend the rest of their life blaming this on freezing turbines.

And snow covered solar panels.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

They obviously voted not to spend the money on the upgrades.

Or there would have been upgrades.

But to which consequences are CEOs held accountable? Do you have any specific examples?

None that I can think of.

 

[Nithavela]

And snow covered solar panels.

Ah yes, obviously, how could I forget. The reasons were snow covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines. Every fossil fuel source was running perfectly, but the lack of renewable energy doomed it all.

 

[Par5]

You differ that anger is not one of the well-known stages of grieving?

No, I realize that in many cases anger is often part of the grieving process.
Where I differed was in saying that seeking monetary compensation is always about getting the largest award possible. I have heard in the past of people being disappointed with the amount they were awarded, but I have never heard of anyone complaining that they were awarded too much.
The family of the little boy is of course entitled to seek accountability if his death was the result of negligence by a third party and to receive appropriate compensation.
I am simply of the opinion that it would have been more respectful to wait for a longer period rather than go down the litigation route almost from day one. But that's just me, and you don't have to agree.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

No, I realize that in many cases anger is often part of the grieving process.
Where I differed was in saying that seeking monetary compensation is always about getting the largest award possible. I have heard in the past of people being disappointed with the amount they were awarded, but I have never heard of anyone complaining that they were awarded too much.
The family of the little boy is of course entitled to seek accountability if his death was the result of negligence by a third party and to receive appropriate compensation.
I am simply of the opinion that it would have been more respectful to wait for a longer period rather than go down the litigation route almost from day one. But that's just me, and you don't have to agree.

I wouldn't be too hard on the family. The sharks begin circling immediately and often push the grieving family into litigation before they're ready. The payoff for lawyers is huge in such cases if they win.

 

[Larniavc]

I always find it humorous when people from another country try to tell us what our laws mean. The bolded part shoots you down. Not following a 'recommendation' is not a criminal offense.....not in this country at least. In this country public utilities are governed by boards that tell them what they MUST do. Recommendations are just that and nothing more. They violated no law therefore they are not CRIMINALLY negligent.

Actually the cost of repairing the system typically drives the price of a utility down just after the occurence. Nothing new or surprising there......Sorta like a fast food stock going down because of tainted food.....re: Chipotle

I find it humorous when people from America seem happy to define anything that is not expressly illegal ‘fine’.

 

[Larniavc]

None that I can think of.

Which is my point. There are no consequences for CEOs.

It’s almost as if people in power are insulated from their ‘mistakes’.

CEOs, politicians, priests, etc.

 

[rambot]

They should have filed the lawsuit against those who foisted the whole "green energy" agenda on them. Places like Wisconsin where I live don't have that, and our power grid didn't freeze up and leave people in the cold. But then again, we don't have to rely on wind and solar for 20% or more of our power. Texas shouldn't have to either since they're loaded with oil. But, when the green energy people got ahold of power, people ended up dying.

Wow. You are totally misinformed and inattentive as the premise of this argument was disproven a long time ago.

 

[civilwarbuff]

people from America seem happy to define anything that is not expressly illegal ‘fine’.

Except we don't. Many of us here are not 'fine' with abortion......just as an example. Only those on the left are 'fine' with abortion.

 

[Larniavc]

Except we don't. Many of us here are not 'fine' with abortion......just as an example. Only those on the left are 'fine' with abortion.

Fair point well made.

 

[rambot]

Which is my point. There are no consequences for CEOs.

It’s almost as if people in power are insulated from their ‘mistakes’.

CEOs, politicians, priests, etc.

Is this not a class thing that is present in most western countries?

 

[keith99]

I wouldn't be too hard on the family. The sharks begin circling immediately and often push the grieving family into litigation before they're ready. The payoff for lawyers is huge in such cases if they win.

If I recall correctly there are steps of grieving. A couple of the early ones are denial and anger. The denial that they did anything wrong (and in this case wrong means missing something, not doing something evil) and anger that can be directed at some outside entity works perfectly for such sharks.

 

[cow451]

I wouldn't be too hard on the family. The sharks begin circling immediately and often push the grieving family into litigation before they're ready. The payoff for lawyers is huge in such cases if they win.

It is unfortunate that tort law seems to often be the only way to hold corporations accountable for their negligence.

 

[loveofourlord]

I don't think the courts would rule that not winterizing was a deliberate and irresponsible act, especially in a region with a historically warm climate.

yeah not like they've been warned that climate was changing for decades and acted irresponsibly.

and before anyone complains about 100 million dollar lawsuit, it's one of the biggest jokes in the US where a company makes billions by not doing something, and then pay a fine for a fraction of a fraction of the cost. Oh no...we bed 200 million not doing this.....but were going to have to pay a 500k fine.... Punitive damages are done to make it less worth hurting people for profit.

 

[loveofourlord]

The customers will pay dearly for those upgrades. The city upgraded the sewer main on my street. My assessment was $2000.

And? whats the damages if that sewer isn't fixed and breaks down? It may be on your street, but it connects to other streets and such and a break down there could hurt more then just you. The GOP and you guys are so short sighted, that the cost to fix something becomes majour issues down the line. many of your bridges, and power lines and such are in dire need of being fixed, but oh no too expensive, till something goes wrong and people die.

 

[loveofourlord]

Ahhhhh, so you want the gov't. to take over the utility grid? That's probably on the Biden/Socialist agenda.....one more way to bring the people to heel.

Instead you have incompetent morons bringing people to death...

 

[loveofourlord]

This from the link:

"Despite having knowledge of the dire weather forecast for at least a week in advance, and the knowledge that the system was not prepared for more than a decade, Ercot and Entergy failed to take any peremptory action that could have averted the crisis and were wholly unprepared to deal with the crisis at hand," the lawsuit alleges."

Now, In place of "Ercot and Entergy", place the parents names , at least as far as knowing bad weather was coming,and see how the comment looks. Its really not so far fetched to think the parents had some responsibility here.

But again, we need more details.

Right because it's the duty of the family to know that their government and power providers are evil naracistic incompetent bafoons and should have left the state like ted cruz to avoid freezing to death.

 

[Aldebaran]

Ah yes, obviously, how could I forget. The reasons were snow covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines. Every fossil fuel source was running perfectly, but the lack of renewable energy doomed it all.

The fossil fuel sources have been getting put out of business by government regulations meant to eliminate competition to "green" sources, even though green sources are proving more unreliable the more they're mandated.

 

[Aldebaran]

Instead you have incompetent morons bringing people to death...

I wouldn't say all of the people in Biden's administration are that way.