Cablevision Hit With $250M Suit Over Sandy Outages

Cablevision Systems Corp (NYSE:CVC) has been accused in a $250 million lawsuit of continuing to bill and failing to offer refunds to more than 1 million customers who lost TV, Internet or phone service because of Hurricane Sandy.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday with the New York State Supreme Court in Nassau County, said Cablevision had not met its contractual obligation to offer credits to customers who lost service for more than 24 hours.

It said the Bethpage, New York-based company instead offered rebates only to its "most favored" customers on a discretionary basis, and only after they requested them.

Cablevision subscribers Jeffrey Bard and Irwin Bard of Nassau County brought the lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, rebates, punitive damages and a halt on future billing for lengthy service outages.

Charles Schueler, a Cablevision spokesman, had no immediate comment. Hunter Shkolnik, who represents the plaintiffs and whose law firm announced the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also on Tuesday, the Long Island Power Authority and UK-based National Grid Plc <NG.L> were sued over alleged negligence linked to power outages in Nassau and Suffolk counties that followed the late-October storm.

Shares of Cablevision were down 1.2 percent at $14.07 in morning trading.

The case is Bard et al v. Cablevision Systems Corp et al, New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County, No. 602291/2012.