Tarrant County residents sue ERCOT, Oncor over Texas winter storm deaths
Two Tarrant County residents are suing the state’s power grid manager after their family members died during February’s winter storm.
According to the lawsuits filed in Tarrant County District Court on Monday, Carol Hearn and Doris Williams died as a result of the widespread power outages that left Texans across the state without electricity and water amid freezing temperatures.
Hearn’s son, Christopher Trujillo, and Williams’ son, Ron Williams, are suing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and Oncor Electric Delivery. The separate lawsuits argue that ERCOT and Oncor failed to properly prepare for the winter storm and properly initiate rolling blackouts. Customers were also not properly warned they would be without power for an extended period of time, it states.
“Because ERCOT and Oncor failed in their duties to prepare for such a cold weather event, millions of Texas households, including Decedent’s, lost power with no or minimal warning and were plunged into darkness and below freezing temperatures,” the lawsuits read.
Hearn — who was living with her son in Euless, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney Gregory Cox of Fort Worth — was left without power for day and suffered hypothermia, according to the lawsuit. Williams, who lived in Arlington with her husband, required breathing equipment but was without power for five days and died as a result, according to the lawsuit.
Both lawsuits request the cases be taken to a jury trial.
“Clearly neither one of these women should have passed away when they did, under the circumstances that they did,” Cox said. “It was a completely preventable tragedy.”
A spokesperson for ERCOT said the organization cannot not comment on pending litigation.
“We are heartbroken by the devastating struggles that our customers and all of Texas endured during the recent power emergency. We are unable to comment further due to pending litigation,” Oncor spokesperson Kerri Dunn said in a statement. “It is important to note that Oncor does not generate or produce electricity.”
More than 150 people died as a result of the winter storm, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That includes three deaths in Tarrant County.
Most of the state’s deaths are linked to hypothermia, but there have also been deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning, exacerbation of chronic illness, falls and fire, according to the department.
ERCOT in April asked the Supreme Court of Texas to move similar cases against it to one court to handle pre-trial proceedings.
“Following Winter Storm Uri, ERCOT has been named in dozens of lawsuits across the state of Texas alleging that it was negligent and grossly negligent for causing the loss of electricity and/or water during Winter Storm Uri,” a court filing from ERCOT reads, arguing that “transfer will promote the goals of convenience, efficiency, and justice.”
ERCOT plans to assert that it has sovereign immunity since it functions as an arm of state government, the court document shows. The organization will also argue that those filing the lawsuits “have no private cause of action against it because the (Public Utility Commission) has exclusive jurisdiction over claims against ERCOT” and that the winter storm was an act of God, according to the court document.
