Con Ed is once again in the bull’s-eye.
Private engineers charged this week that the utility should’ve been aware of a “crack-like flaw” in the steam pipe that exploded July 18.
Whatever a “crack-like flaw” is, of course.
And who are these “private engineers”?
Exponent Engineering has been, in fact, hired by lawyers seeking some $350 million from Con Ed on behalf of two people caught in the blast.
That figure represents 70 percent of the $500 million that trial lawyers recover each year in various suits against the city.
In other words, the lawyers are hoping for a really big payday.
One engineer called the finding “preliminary,” but said that Con Ed will undoubtedly have to provide more information so that an accurate assessment of “the broader integrity of the steam system” can be ascertained.
Now, perhaps Con Ed truly did miss a “flaw.” That may well come out at trial.
Even so, the circling tort-bar vultures put into perspective Con Ed’s own reflexively criticized “notice of claim” – a procedural action that precedes the filing of a lawsuit – against the city two weeks ago.
By doing so, Con Ed served notice that, in defending itself against these lawsuits, it may require litigation of its own to determine what role city-owned infrastructure might have played in the blast.
If the city did something that contributed to the explosion, a lawsuit and subsequent trial could establish an affirmative legal defense for the utility.
Circumstantial evidence, at the least, suggests that a leak in a city-owned water main might have contributed to the explosion.
Indeed, even as Con Ed came under attack in the hours right after the eruption, the city waited several days before admitting that there’d been a water-main break in the vicinity of the broken steam pipe.
This is significant because, theoretically, the water-main break could as easily have caused the steampipe rupture as vice-versa.
Moreover, Gavin Nicoletta – who heads the Public Service Commission’s gas-safety division – admitted at a hearing in September that the PSC was looking into the possibility of a water leak as a cause of the incident.
It’s complicated, but Con Ed certainly has a right to defend itself – and it may have a pretty strong case, at that.
In the end, however, some combination of Con Ed ratepayers and municipal taxpayers – ordinary New Yorkers each and every one – will be contributing to the tort bar’s big payday.
More’s the pity.