ST. CROIX — Karl Knight, Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority chief executive officer and executive director, was served with a new meter-related lawsuit Wednesday at the Legislature building on St. Thomas after informing senators all such cases had been dismissed.
Knight said the process server met him at the Legislature to serve him in the case of Harrigan et al v. Itron Inc. et al.
“I got served yesterday after the hearing,” Knight said on Thursday.
The hearing was a Committee of the Whole meeting, during which Knight responded to an inquiry from Senator Kurt Vialet regarding the number of lawsuits filed against WAPA relating to metering and rates.
“My legal counsel sent me a note, senator, saying that all the cases related to the meters have been dismissed, so we don’t have any currently before us,” Knight told the senator after receiving the update from WAPA’s general counsel Dionne Sinclair.
The Harrigan plaintiffs seek economic and noneconomic damages of $10 million against Itron and Knight as well as $29 million in punitive damages. The other defendants are WAPA and Pedro Williams, chair of the Virgin Islands Public Services Commission.
Although Knight was not served in the Harrigan case until after Wednesday’s Senate meeting, the lawsuit was initially filed on July 10 by attorney Terri Griffiths. The court subsequently noted the complaint was improperly filed and should be refiled as the main document. An amended complaint was filed on July 11. A second amended complaint was filed on October 16.
On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Patricia Quinland filed her notice of appearance as counsel for Knight and WAPA. Attorneys Carol Ann Rich and Kimberly Cole, of the Law Firm of Dudley Rich LLP, also filed a notice of appearance on Thursday as co-counsel for Knight and WAPA.
According to the second amended complaint, the plaintiffs — six WAPA ratepayers (Kerry Harrigan, Patricia Alexander, Jeff Konowal, Carol Stanley, Nelson Uzzell, and Robert Deitrick), and HealthQuest LLC d/b/a Caribbean Kidney Center — allege that WAPA’s billing practices obstruct due process. They claim their “estimated” bills do not reflect actual consumption of power, and that WAPA, Itron, and the PSC have acted in concert to conceal the nonfunctionality of the Itron Advanced Metering Infrastructure smart meter system, which results in fabricated power bills.
