About 180,000 residents and 20,000 businesses were without power \u2013 some for several days \u2013 as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n
The case is being run by two law firms, LeeSalmonLong and Piper Alderman, with backing from litigation funder Omni Bridgeway.<\/p>\n
David Bullock, a partner at LeeSalmonLong, said Transpower and Omexom\u2019s contribution of $1 million to a regional resilience fund following the outage was unlikely to cover the actual losses suffered by Northland businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe collapse of the tower and the power outage that followed were not the product of some uncontrollable event like a storm \u2013 they were the result of a significant failure of infrastructure management that should have been easily foreseen and avoided,\u201d Bullock said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In a separate statement, Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said the incident was avoidable and had damaged the regional economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe funding that we did receive following the event was hard-fought and well- received, though pales in comparison to the significant losses experienced by businesses across our rohe [region],\u201d Tepania said.<\/p>\n
Piper Alderman partner Hannah Brown said it can be difficult for individual business owners to challenge the power and influence of a state-owned enterprise, such as Transpower, and the financial resources of an entity like Omexom \u2013 a subsidiary of a multinational company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lawsuit is about giving those businesses access to justice and an opportunity to group together to fight for compensation,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see this as being something that could easily have been avoided, so this differentiates it from other crisis events,\u201d she told the Herald.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is intended to be run on an \u201copt-out\u201d basis, meaning all businesses that were impacted by the incident will automatically be included once the claim is filed, but businesses will have the opportunity to opt out of the process if they wish to.<\/p>\n
The claim is being funded by Omni Bridgeway, meaning that it does not cost businesses anything to be involved in the action \u2013 whatever the outcome in court.<\/p>\n
Jacob Kerkin, an investment manager at Omni Bridgeway in New Zealand, said litigation funding will enable those affected to seek compensation collectively, without bearing the costs and risks of the action.<\/p>\n
Litigation funding is when a third party provides money to plaintiffs to cover the costs of pursuing a lawsuit.<\/p>\n
In return, the funder receives a share of any settlement or judgment if the case succeeds.<\/p>\n
The Electricity Authority (EA), in its report on the outage, said a tower collapsing during routine maintenance should not happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Transpower described the event as \u2018unprecedented and inconceivable\u2019, the underlying factors that contributed to the tower\u2019s collapse were entirely avoidable,\u201d the EA said.<\/p>\n
The authority recommended better processes, documentation and training, along with the need for better oversight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the heart of this review is security of electricity supply \u2013 its criticality to consumers and businesses and what is needed to ensure that such events do not happen again,\u201c the EA said.<\/p>\n
Class actions are common in Australia and are becoming more prevalent in New Zealand.<\/p>\n