Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO) gets slapped with a class-action lawsuit by two local lawyers who argue that the company has misrepresented the scope of its condemnation authority in getting land for transmission lines that will also carry fiber optic wires.
The complaint, filed in Addison County Superior Court by lawyers Peter Langrock and James Dumont on behalf of as many as 1,000 Vermont landowners, demands that VELCO must be stopped from further construction, installation, and leasing of fiber optic lines along its electrical transmission rights-of-way across plaintiff’s land. It also asks the company to remove any lines that are not directly needed for the transmission of electricity.
Other demands include compensatory damages to plaintiffs for the fair value of the use of their property, and punitive damages based on the ‘deceptive behavior’ of the defendant.
The attorneys note that VELCO went through condemnation proceedings to get the property for a project that it believed was essential in upgrading Vermont’s electricity infrastructure. But they argue that in many cases, VELCO never informed the landowners that their property would be used as conduit for fiber optic line. Those fiber optic lines have been installed and leased to others without the knowledge of the landowners.
The complaint reads, “In some cases, (VELCO) has made false statements and misleading representations to landowners inducing landowners to grant, and allowing (VELCO) to obtain, certain rights of way. In these cases, defendants have misstated their intentions to plaintiff landowners regarding the purposes of the requested rights-of-way; misrepresented the scope of their condemnation authority; and failed to inform plaintiff landowners that the fiber optic lines were to be subleased for additional revenue, which would not benefit the landowners.”
Langrock and his comrades have been looking at this matter for a year now and he thinks that now is the right time to make this move. He firmly believes that the plaintiffs have a very good case.