Golden Valley Electric Ass'n v. Revel
This text of 719 P.2d 263 (Golden Valley Electric Ass'n v. Revel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
OPINION
Leon Revel took Golden Valley Electric Association’s (GVEA) utility service without authorization. GVEA instituted this civil suit for damages under AS 42.20.-030(a), alleging it is entitled to recover three times its costs to investigate and discover Revel’s theft, or $11,250. Superi- or Court Judge Gerald J. Van Hoomissen granted judgment on the pleadings for Revel. GVEA appeals. We affirm.
MEASURE OF DAMAGES UNDER AS 42.20.030(a)
GVEA argues that Revel is civilly liable for its costs of investigating his theft of utility service. Revel contends that GVEA may only recover actual damages, not all costs that are quantifiable. The trial court believed investigative costs should be recoverable, but granted judgment for Revel to promote consistency in civil and criminal damage assessments under AS 42.20.030(a) and AS 12.55.100(a), respectively.1
AS 42.20.030(a) creates civil liability for treble damages when a person intentionally damages a utility’s property or takes its service without its permission.2 The question raised by this case is whether a utility’s cost of discovering the theft of utility services is within the scope of AS 42.20.-030(a).
Subparagraphs (1M7) permit recovery of damages arising from physical damage to or interference with a utility’s property or equipment. We interpret the term “actual damages sustained” to refer to physical damage to the property. Sub-paragraph (8) authorizes recovery for three times the value of utility service taken. We conclude that the legislature did not intend to allow recovery of three times the cost of apprehending a person who takes service from a utility.
GVEA’s reliance on our decision in Curt’s Trucking Co. v. City of Anchorage, 578 P.2d 975 (Alaska 1978), is misplaced. In that case we addressed the scope of indirect damages recoverable when an overhead utility line is damaged by a dump truck. We ruled that routine administrative overhead costs relating to the utility’s repair of physical damages sustained are recoverable if they are a fair and reasonable allocation of actual repair costs, even though the costs are indirect. Id. at 979. However, overhead costs pertaining to risk management or claims processing are not recoverable because they are similar to expenses incurred in preparing for litigation, [265]*265and thus do not represent indirect costs of repair. Id. at 981.
GYEA’s investigative costs here are not routine administrative overhead related to valuing service taken without permission; instead, they relate to the discovery of an unauthorized taking of utility service. Investigative costs are more like risk management overhead in that they do not represent an indirect cost of valuing service. Therefore, our decision in Curt’s Trucking does not support GVEA's position.
We conclude that AS 42.20.030(a), read as a whole, is intended to.limit a utility’s recovery to actual damages arising from physical injury to its equipment and for the value of utility service taken. Because GVEA seeks recovery of investigative costs which are unrelated to valuation of utility service taken, we affirm the judgment on the pleadings for Revel.3 .
AFFIRMED.
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack
719 P.2d 263, 1986 Alas. LEXIS 337, 1986 WL 1167007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/golden-valley-electric-assn-v-revel-alaska-1986.