CLEVELAND — Clinton Yoby is just one of some 70,000 Cleveland Public Power customers involved in a class-action lawsuit claiming $130 million in over-charges over the past several years.
CPP customers involved in the lawsuit claim they were unfairly charged by way of an environmental charge allegedly buried within the energy adjustment charge listed on their bills.
Yoby told News 5 he's now concerned about the case, after the City of Cleveland asked County Judge Deborah Turner on Sept. 23 if she would accept a city-appointed 3-member arbitration panel to decide the case, instead of sending the case to trial to be heard by a judge and jury.
Yoby said he worried an arbitration panel selected by the city will not give customers a fair and unbiased hearing in the case.
"Their arbitration is selected by them, so how fair, or how impartial of a dispute are you going to have when Cleveland Public Power or the City of Cleveland is on the panel," Yoby said. "What they’re doing is preposterous to me; I really don’t believe they’re trying to say we’re going to have a fair and impartial arbitration. They’re saying that they’re not taking jurisdiction away form the court, but by having an arbitration panel made up of their employees, I think they are.”
Attorney Tom Merriman, who is representing many of the CPP customers in the class-action lawsuit, said he's hoping Judge Turner will deny the city's request to appoint an arbitration panel. Merriman believes CPP customers deserve their day in court and believes not all city leaders who voted in favor of the arbitration panel legislation understood what they were voting on.
“I’m not even sure everyone on council knew exactly what they were voting for," Merriman said. "It was pitched as some sort of panel for people facing shut-off.”
“The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, now we’re back and ready to go to trial, and on the cusp of trail the city says oh we’re going to create arbitration and we get to have our own people decide the outcome of the case. That’s not American Justice.”
News 5 reached out to Cleveland Public Power for this story and the city utility responded immediately with the following statement:
"After years of the media, customers, and Council Members calling for a more formal and inclusive review process, Cleveland City Council and the Administration unanimously proposed and passed Ordinance 472-2022 on May 23, 2022. The City has created a faster, more effective means to handle billing complaints. The arbitration panels will be subject to judicial review, require neutral parties, and will let Cleveland citizens resolve their disputes without paying attorneys for seven years.
CPP runs on a balanced budget, which means it can only spend what it collects from its customers. The amount of money sought in the class action lawsuit would cause rate increases and result in customers paying themselves, less their attorney’s fees. The arbitration panel is designed to resolve customer complaints in a direct and expeditious fashion, without incurring attorneys’ fees and engaging in years of litigation."
Meanwhile, Merriman believes Judge Turner could rule on the city's attempt to send the case to an arbitration panel by the end of the week, and maintains an arbitration panel created by the city would block due process for thousands of CPP customers.
‘They say it’s efficient; yes it’s efficient for them," Merriman said. "They’re going to put a bullet in the case of consumers who have been ripped off to the tune of $130 million dollars.”
“We’re going to win the issue, and we're going to go to trial, and we’re going to get people their money back, that’s what this is about.”
