HOUSTON — Houston attorney Tony Buzbee announced plans Monday to file a class-action lawsuit against CenterPoint Energy on behalf of dozens of local restaurants.
The lawsuit will claim that CenterPoint's alleged "negligence" led to the restaurants losing power for days in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. It will also allege that CenterPoint failed to maintain its infrastructure over the years and then failed to adequately respond to Beryl once it impacted the area.
All of the restaurants expected to join the lawsuit lost power in the storm and continued to go without power for days, according to Buzbee.
Speaking to KHOU 11, the attorney said about 50 restaurants in Galveston and Houston are expected to sign on as plaintiffs.
"When their doors are closed, they can’t make money, they can’t pay their employees, they lose food," he said. "The margins in a restaurant are small already, and when you lose an entire week, that can put your restaurant in danger of closing for good."
Buzbee explained that he wants the lawsuit to force CenterPoint to go to court and make changes.
"This is just one more avenue and one more approach to try to force CenterPoint to do what we all know they need to do, which is invest some of those profits into infrastructure so we're not sitting around without power and these businesses are not closed and people are not shut into their homes," he said.
Buzbee said he expects more lawsuits to be filed in the future with other groups suing the power company in the same vein as the restaurants.
CenterPoint did not respond to requests for comment Monday regarding the lawsuit.