I've been going back and forth with PG&E on a commercial customer who was misclassified on A-10 instead of E-19 for almost 6 years. They're claiming statute of limitations kicks in at 4 years under California Civil Code. Has anyone dealt with this specific issue? The overcharge is about $47,000 total but they're only willing to go back 4 years which cuts it to maybe $31,000. Client is pushing for the full amount obviously.
California SOL for overcharges - is it really 4 years?
Dan, I've seen this with Duke Energy in NC. The 4 year limit is pretty standard but there are exceptions if you can prove fraudulent concealment or ongoing billing errors. What's the nature of the misclassification? Was it clearly their error or could it be argued the customer should have caught it?
In Texas we see 4 years with most IOUs but municipal utilities sometimes have different rules. The key is whether it's considered a billing error versus a contract dispute. If PG&E misclassified the rate schedule that sounds like their error to me. Have you looked at the original interconnection agreement?
We had a similar case with FirstEnergy in Ohio. Customer was on wrong rate for 5+ years, they initially claimed 4 year SOL but we pushed back citing Ohio Revised Code 1345.09. Ended up getting 5 years back. The trick was showing it was an unfair business practice rather than just a billing dispute.
Thanks everyone. Derek, the interconnection agreement shows they put the customer on A-10 from day one even though the load profile clearly justified E-19. Customer has 2MW peak demand, mostly during on-peak hours. There's no way this should have been A-10. Jim, I'll look into the unfair business practice angle.
Dan, I just wrapped up a case like this with National Grid here in RI. Similar situation - customer clearly should have been on G-32 instead of G-02 based on their usage pattern. We got the full 6 years back by arguing it was an ongoing breach of their duty to provide appropriate rate classification. The RIPUC backed us up. Worth checking if CPUC has any relevant precedents.
Laura makes a good point about regulatory precedent. In NC we've had success arguing that utilities have an affirmative duty to place customers on the most appropriate rate. When they fail to do that it's not really a statute of limitations issue, it's ongoing damages from their breach of duty.
Exactly Derek. The key legal argument is that each monthly bill constitutes a separate act of overcharging, so the SOL clock resets each month. We've used this successfully in several New England states. California might be different but it's worth exploring with a good utility attorney.