What would going for 17 days without power be worth to you? The inconvenience of living without electricity for weeks after his neighbors had power restored has prompted a Staten Island man to sue Con Edison for $500 million, as well as ask the state to ban the company from operating in New York. In other words, he wants it to be lights out for Con Ed, too.

The man claims that it’s ridiculous that he was left without power for that long — he says his home didn’t suffer any damage from Superstorm Sandy and all of his neighbors except for two other homes had power restored in a matter of days. DNAInfo.com says he’s also seeking class-action status for his lawsuit in case other customers are just as peeved as he is.

He’s accusing Con Ed of gross negligence in its preparation for the storm and its recovery effort, saying in an affidavit:  “Con Edison does not deserve to be in the electric power supply business since it is inept at every level.”

It isn’t just the post-Sandy failings he’s alleging in the lawsuit, but the man is claiming a long history of dissatisfaction and failures on the part of Con Ed, adding, “Not one year has passed since I have lived at the premises since 2004 that I have not spent some part of my year in extended electric blackout conditions.”

He says that after Sandy hit on Oct. 29, he and his family had to stay with friends for more than two weeks. Meanwhile he claims Con Ed gave him six different dates for when power would be restored, and a multitude of reasons for why there were so many delays.

The funny thing is there are no overhead lines so the power wasn’t taken out by trees, and he says everyone on his block had power a lot quicker than he did. His home was left intact — it didn’t flood and nothing was damaged. So why no power? That’ll be up to Con Ed to answer when it files an answer to the complaint.

SI Lawyer Sues Con Ed After Sandy Left Him Without Power for 17 Days [DNAInfo.com]

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