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From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Massive Service Outage in Northern Illinois!
Message-ID: <13826@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Oct 90 11:36:06 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 747, Message 5 of 7


>[Moderator's Note: Effective soon, a new law here requires contact and
>approval from JULIE prior to digging in the ground. After a review of
>appropriate platt maps and easement documents, JULIE will approve the
>dig or decline its approval. If approved, JULIE will issue a unique
>authorization code to the person(s) doing the digging which, in the
>event of a cable cut or other damage such as a broken gas pipe will
>serve to indemnify the person(s) digging.  
  ...
>The law in Illinois
>grants easement rights to utilities, meaning if they have a cable
>running under your land, they have a right to examine/repair it
>without your permission, and you must obtain their permission to
>remove it or otherwise injure it. Who would sue him? The telco (or
>other utility), for damaging their property, as per their easement
>rights. Bell did in fact file suit Wednesday to the tune of one
>million dollars against the contractor.  PAT]

All of the above sounds reasonable to me, *except* that last line.

He should counter sue for harassment.  They've filed suit without even
trying to negotiate a payment for their damages, and they are
obviously trying to collect more than the cost of the damage he did.
What he damaged was apparently one each fiber optic device.  He
probably owes them the cost to repair it.  Several hundreds, or a few
thousands, of dollars.

What I object to is going after the cost of lost service.  That was
caused by proven bad management and bad planning.  The study done
following the Hinsdale fire disaster is all the documentation needed
to prove it.  NOBODY builds non-redundant systems and puts critical
traffic on them.  (At least nobody with good management and good
planning does.)


Floyd L. Davidson      floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu
8347 Richardson Hwy.   floydd@chinet.chi.il.us
Salcha, AK 99714       [and related to Alascom, Inc. by a pay check, only]


[Moderator's Note: They apparently did ask him to pay, and reasonably
assuming he would not do so voluntarily, they filed suit. As to the
amount of the damages it goes a lot further than 'one each fiber optic
device' as you stated. How much is the salary for a dozen men being
paid union wages working several hours overtime? How much did it cost
the Traffic Department to rush several additional people into service
as operators during the crunch of calls?  A special bank of cell
phones and two way radios was set up for the hospital to use all day.
Were those free? What about the public relations people who rushed a
press release into circulation and spent the day on radio talk shows
explaining the problem?  What about the cost of responding to the
several lawsuits filed against *telco* -- as though it was *their*
fault that service was out -- by several business places in the area?
Should telco go to the Legal Aid Bureau?  The cost to telco might well
have approached a million dollars by the time all was back to normal
in 708-land.  PAT]