San Diego restaurant ready to sue SDG&E for millions
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Patisserie Melanie in North Park serves up delicious French dishes, but the restaurant owners have a bitter taste in their mouths because of SDG&E.
“Emotionally and physically it was just exhausting,” says co-owner Axel Schwarz.
Axel and his wife Melanie signed the building lease in October of 2019, but it needed electrical and gas upgrades.
Axel says it took SDG&E 3.5 years for the company to finish the job.
“It was just one long nightmare,” says Axel. “One long series of just waiting for the next person to give us what we needed and it took forever.”
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And what explanation did the power company give?
“Well for the first year and a half we were essentially told ‘you’re next on the list, you’re our priority, we’re going to get to you,'” Axel remembered. “It’s a lot to deal with. We’re small business owners. I’m a school teacher. We just wanted to have this great place where people come. We did not expect to have to wait such a long time for something that’s very simple for SDG&E to do.”
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Axel says the delays resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in building expenses, equipment costs, loan payments and rent on an empty building.
While being inoperable for that time they incurred massive debt and lost revenue for a total monetary damage of nearly $3 million.
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Axel says the total amount they are seeking for restitution from SDG&E, with punitive damages, is nearly $18 million. They said they have filed a claim, but have not heard back.
Now, they’re ready to serve up a lawsuit against the power company.
“We would like compensation for the suffering that we went through, the financial loss, for the emotional toll. We just spent so much money waiting for them to do very basic jobs and we would like that money back.”
FOX 5/KUSI did reach out to SDG&E and sent them a copy of the complaint, but have not heard back yet.
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