<p>If the old man has any living relatives, they should sue that power company. That electrical company KILLED that man. This is a perfect example of negligent homicide. No company in the world should cut off the electricity in the middle of winter.</p>
<p>Sad story indeed…in NJ a utility that keeps a house warm and liveable has guidelines to follow in their protocal to cut off service. Although I don’t know exactly , it is determined by the outside temperatures both daytime and nightime…and they will work with the customer with regard to health issues that could potentially put them or anyone in the household who is at risk because of shutting down service…basically a doctor’s note.
Obviously, NJ ( a least in the southern half of the state ) doesn’t have the same extreme weather conditions as does Michigan or other colder states.
I am guessing that this poor gentleman had no one in his family that was willing to help him out and work with the power company on his behalf.</p>
<p>Seems like a case of a lonely senior citizen with no one close to turn to for help. Jumping into a lawsuit is no always the best solution , unless you are willing to absorb the costs of the utility who will ultimately pass that expense onto you and all of their customers
Don’t get me wrong… I work voluntarily with seniors and the issues they face.
This is not an issue that happens only in th USA… European seniors have recently met the same fate as this poor man.
I understand your anger, but I think it might be better spent on helping the people such as this gentleman before a tragedy happens again</p>
<p>tenisghs has an interesting take on this tragedy. Hold the electric company responsible for a tragedy that happened to a customer that didn’t pay his bill. He must have gotten notice after notice about his bill and the possible actions. Different than tenisghs, I was thinking something almost the opposite. I’m thinking if that man has any family, they should be held accountable. I completely agree it sounds like negligent homicide. Any/every living family member has neglected him. Surely someone in his family could have chipped in enough to pay electric company, or could have taken him in, or could have checked on him regularly. Many options were available to family. If he has family, this family has done nothing.
If of course he has no family, that is a different story.</p>
<p>Mr. Schur had no children and his wife had died several years ago. He was also a WWII veteran.</p>
<p>There should be a second level of protection for individuals like Mr. Schur from both the utility companies and their neighbors. I’m not sure if it’s in the op’s article, but the neighbor who found him said there was cash clipped to electric bills in his kitchen.</p>
<p>This sounds pretty bad, but I have to wonder if there’s more to the story. What was this “limiter” supposed to accomplish? Was it designed to provide only enough power for the basics–like heat–but not for other stuff, like electric appliances? Did the man know what he could and couldn’t do with the limiter? I’d want to see what the electric company has to say about it.</p>
<p>younghoss, he had no children and his wife is deceased. The city manager Belleman had the nerve to say the electric company was simply following procedure and it was the neighbors’ responsibilities to look after each other. HELLO? Folks are struggling to make ends meet in this dire, stressful economy. People are losing their jobs. Trying to place the blame on someone else is cowardly. He needs to be ousted out of office. This should have never happened.</p>
<p>You can’t also expect people this age to have 100% mental capacity as if he was younger. This is why you often hear a lot of old people are scammed to spend all their trust fund purchasing things that don’t need. In this case, it could also be that he received the notice and did not do anything about it.</p>
<p>Columbia, the man had the money to pay the bills on his table. Granted, age probably got to him because he couldn’t hear well and suffered a mild form of dementia. With the dangerously-low temperatures, he probably didn’t venture outside to protect himself. </p>
<p>thank you for clarifying, tenisghs(post 8). In your Op, you were uncertain if he had any family, yet accused the electric company of homicide without knowing. Now it has been updated that he had no family. Thankfully, in my post(#5) I only gave an opinion based on if he did have family.</p>
<p>That is what I was referring to. I did not mean to suggest he did not want to pay as he did not have money but it was probably dementia. Sometimes, I have problem paying all of my bills because I did not get to it in time and I’m not 93.</p>
I beg to be different. The gentleman suffered from dementia and couldn’t pay his bills even when he had money clipped to it. This is a special case. No one at any power company conspire to kill customers. If we allow his family to sue there’s no telling where it ends. Last month’s ice storm knocked out power to my neighborhood (in fact the power line was laying down across my driveway). We couldn’t try to get out to some place warm and we are in the northeast. We huddled in 20 degree temp for 2 days and nights. Can I sue the power company for not coming to my house soon enough ?</p>
<p>Sethcolby, it’s obvious you didn’t read the article. In your situation, the power company didn’t tell the weather to intentionally knock down the power line onto your lawn. The power company came out and did their best to restore power to all customers in your neighborhood. </p>
<p>In this case, the power company placed a limiter on this old man’s electric meter because they wanted their money (greed). The man died a slow and painful death (hypothermia) in his own home in subzero-degree temperatures. The city manager then says they were following policy and places the blame on the neighbors for not taking care of him. Don’t you think this was a bit cruel?</p>
<p>No doubt there should be policies in place for dealing with extreme weather conditions but it seems like many of you have a mindset that I have a big problem with. Someone offered up a great point about how if the company is successfully sued, they will be forced to pass the cost onto the customers…perhaps causing another case like this. To simplistically call the power company’s policy nothing more than greed is a slippery slope. Perhaps they should do the “altruistic, charitable thing” and provide free power? Too bad they won’t be in business long. They need to have these policies in place to shut off people’s power if they don’t pay so that people have an incentive to pay. I repeat, there should be policies in place dealing specifically with extreme weather conditions where they can not cut power off, but in most cases…if the customer has not paid for the service, they should NOT get the service. This case is quite unfortunate because the man had no relatives to help take care of him but if he did… some blame should be placed on them. Since he didn’t have any relatives… it is not fair to simply reallocate the blame to the company because what way do they have of knowing the specifics of each of their customers’ situations.</p>
<p>As sympathetic as I am to this poor man, I don’t see how it is the responsibility of the power company to monitor his health and well being. If the power company is prohibited from shutting power off in the winter, who would pay their bill? Okay, some people would, but others would take advantage knowing that they have until spring to not pay. Companies can not stay in business providing their services for free. I think that if this poor man wasn’t capable of paying his bills he needed to have someone caring for him. If it wasn’t lack of heat, something else would have gotten him eventually. How was he eating? How was he shopping?</p>
<p>3bm103, it’s a social responsibility to keep homes heated during dangerously low temperatures (in the last two weeks in mid-Michigan, the temperatures hit 20 below zero). Yes, businesses need to make a profit, but money should not take priority over human life. We are talking human rights here. (For the record, I’m not against companies turning off services for unpaid bills in general. There are states where it is illegal to turn off the heat during the winter months knowing the tragic consequences.) How would you feel if this involved a poor family with young children? Overall, this was very tragic.</p>