A West Baltimore woman, whose mother and four of her five children died in a rowhouse fire two years ago caused by a fallen candle that they had relied on for light, sued Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday for failing to provide electricity.
In her $315 million lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, Latasha McCray seeks to hold BGE liable for the fire because the company rejected several requests to restore electricity to her 129 N. Amity St. rowhouse. McCray also accuses BGE of trying to defraud her by seeking payment of unpaid bills belonging to previous residents and others before restoring service.
At a tearful news conference held in the office of her lawyer, William H. Murphy Jr., McCray said the fire could have been avoided if BGE had heeded the several requests that a roommate had made for more than a year. "If they would have just listened and restored [electricity], I feel [the fire] wouldn't have happened," she said.
The June 10, 2000, fire spread after a candle lighting a hallway fell over. The blaze quickly killed the sleeping residents and prompted public outrage about BGE's denial of service. At the time, BGE said it had cut power to the rowhouse because bills had not been paid, and it had assumed the same customer was still living there. After the fire, BGE said it learned that the customer who was responsible for the unpaid bills had moved.
Ron Cherry, a lawyer for BGE, expressed sympathy for McCray, her family and the victims but denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.
"We have done a very thorough investigation of the entire incident, and we are satisfied that BGE did not violate any rules, regulations or procedures," he said.
Killed in the fire were McCray's mother, Lillie Bell Posley, 53, who was visiting from Pennsylvania, and four of McCray's children, Dominique Derico, 10; Marquan Williams, 6; Nyjerra McCray, 4; and Shydeim Scott, 2. Derico died after about a month in intensive care receiving treatment for burns.
Latasha McCray, who was not home at the time of the fire, lives on Carey Street with her lone surviving child, Ashley McCray, now 13. Ashley had been visiting friends at the time of the fire.
The lawsuit is unusual but not unprecedented, said Murphy. His office couldn't find similar lawsuits in city court, but he said that a New York power company was held liable after it cut electrical service to an apartment building in 1975 and a resident injured herself falling.
According to the 19-page complaint, Panzy Smith, a longtime friend of McCray, had been living at the Amity Street rowhouse since June 1998, when the BGE account was established in the name of her roommate, Shawn Deal. In November 1998, Deal was arrested in Colorado and never returned to the Amity Street address, the lawsuit indicates.
In March 1999, two months after issuing a warning, the lawsuit alleges, BGE cut off electricity, prompting Smith to make several requests for restoring service. After McCray and her children moved into the rowhouse in January 2000, the lawsuit alleges, Smith asked BGE several more times to reinstate electricity.
Andy Toland, another lawyer for McCray, said Smith made a dozen requests. McCray did not call BGE herself.
After each request, the lawsuit alleges, BGE refused, saying Smith had to first pay bills totaling $3,784.50 owed by others who had lived at the Amity Street rowhouse before Smith and for three additional places where BGE said Smith had lived.
Smith and McCray couldn't afford to pay the bills, and BGE refused to let them pay off the bills in installments, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit accuses BGE of negligently failing to provide service and fraudulently telling Smith that she had to pay others' unpaid bills. It also alleges BGE's behavior was "part of a deliberate custom, practice and common plan and scheme to coerce and extort" low-income customers into paying unpaid bills owed by others.
"It's got to stop. We plan on stopping it," Murphy said at the news conference.
State regulations and BGE company policy bar the utility from requiring prospective customers to pay the unpaid bills of previous residents before receiving service.
Cherry, BGE's lawyer, said the company didn't violate those rules and the lawsuit's fraud claim is "clearly not based on facts. ... It just is not true."