As Texans brace for a few days of freezing weather, the Texas Supreme Court is revisiting the arctic blast that hit the state in February 2021. The state's highest court will determine if relatives of those killed and injured during power outages during the 2021 winter storm can sue utility providers like Dallas-based Oncor. 'The fact that the Supreme Court has agreed to grant review to actually consider the merits of this case is significant,' said appellate lawyer Chad Ruback.
He stated that the Supreme Court is stepping in after a lower court allowed 200 lawsuits alleging gross negligence to proceed. In a petition filed in May, the companies argue they were simply adhering to ERCOT's instructions to shed load to prevent the power grid from collapsing. 'In the past, natural gas companies have been held not liable in situations similar to this. The generators, the companies that actually make the power, whether it's solar generation, wind generation, coal generation, have been held not liable in winter storms, for example,' said Ruback. But Ann Saucer, a Dallas lawyer representing multiple plaintiffs in the case, said this situation is different. 'This case is not about whether they followed ERCOT's orders. They said they would implement rolling blackouts for 45 minutes. So your power would go off for 45 minutes, and then it would come back on and someone else's power would go out for 45 minutes. That's what they said that they would do. That's not what they did. That is not what they did. Some people never lost power, and some people lost power for so long for days that they froze to death,' said Saucer. 'I have clients whose son died in the room next to theirs. In another case, a man walked in and found his own brother, frozen to death. These people deserve justice. They deserve the chance to put their case in front of their fellow Texans and be heard. The Supreme Court of Texas has the power to make that happen. My hope and prayer is that the court will do that,
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