Successful class-action suit against JPS ‘quite possible’

Paying customers who allege that the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) turns off electricity, sometimes for the entire day, as part of measures to combat electricity theft could be on firm footing should they decide to file a class-action suit against the power company, one attorney believes.

Several residents of western and southeastern St Andrew have, in recent days, complained that since June, the JPS has been disrupting their electricity supply, for hours at a time, despite their accounts not falling into arrears.

The matter has drawn the ire of political representatives and civil society advocates, who note that the outages are not limited to inner-city areas and are affecting customers islandwide, calling on residents to sue the company for what they describe as a breach of the terms of service.

The success of such a lawsuit “is quite possible”, attorney-at-law Alexander Williams told The Gleaner on Wednesday.

“The civil procedure rules do provide for what Americans call a class-action suit, but [which] is really called a representative claim here in Jamaica [and] allows certain persons to represent a particular class to make a claim, so it is entirely possible here,” he said.

With the outages resulting in spoilage of food and the inability of students to attend virtual classes and adults to work from home, Williams said the residents would need to demonstrate that JPS’s perceived lapse in service delivery was not linked to any act of God or maintenance issue.

“That is to say, they have fulfilled their obligations [by paying their bills], and JPS is in breach of its obligations to provide the service, or in other words, ‘I have paid my bills and the light just cut off.’”

Paying customers would also not have much difficulty in mounting a case, he said, adding that the circumstances “sound like a pretty good case to me”.

Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry said that while she is aware of the concerns, legally, her office cannot offer any assistance as the grouse does not lie with a state entity.

For some JPS customers in Woodford Park in southeastern St Andrew, the situation has become overbearing.

Rudolph Campbell, an elderly resident, complained that his perishable items have spoiled in the refrigerator due to loss of power, and his monthly bill ranges from $10,000 to $11,000.

“People not supposed to live in this condition, and the worst part about it is that we are paying,” he said.

The JPS has continued to bemoan the impact of electricity theft on its revenues and its ability to improve infrastructure and has called on the Government to establish a special utility court to prosecute electricity thieves, citing power theft of US$200 million being a drain on its resources. The company said that it has spent approximately US$150 million in the last five years to reduce electricity theft.

Citing the St John’s Road area in Spanish Town, St Catherine, the JPS, on Wednesday, said it continued to be faced with the cost of replacing transformers due to illegal connections at a cost of $1.6 million, adding that since the start of the year, it has replaced seven transformers in the area despite the typical 15- to 20-year lifespan of the equipment.

The light and power company says the community has a theft rate of 96 per cent, with 25 out of the 650 residents being legal JPS customers.

The community of Woodford Park in southeastern St Andrew has also been fingered as stealing 83 per cent of the electricity supplied to the area. Some paying customers of this community are among those complaining of daily electricity disruptions.

For attorney Emile Leiba, the JPS’s defence to the residents’ claim of breach of service contract could be bolstered by the evidence of persistent electricity theft and the resultant damage to its equipment and infrastructure.

“In some communities, people have throw-ups that disrupt the service. So if it is that there are third-party actions that are causing the disruption of service, then that is likely to result in JPS having a successful defence,” he said.

tameka.gordon@gleanerjm.com