Insurer Sues AT&T for $530,000 for Damaged Underground Electrical Conduit

AT&T removed to U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Alexandria Friday a complaint (docket 1:24-cv-00022) filed Nov. 20 in the 10th Judicial District Court for Natchitoches Parish in which the Travelers Property Casualty Co. seeks to recover nearly $530,000 for its client, Loboda Properties, for damage that AT&T and its contractor, Deviney Construction, caused to an underground electrical conduit near a commercial retail building that Loboda owns in Natchitoches. The building suffered a power outage that affected several tenants on Nov. 22, 2022, the same day that Deviney was installing a fiber optic cable for AT&T, said the complaint. “Before boring the underground hole for the fiber optic cable, Deviney failed to properly inquire about, or further investigate, the route and depth of the underground electrical conductors despite the open and obvious location of the pad-mounted transformer relative to the electrical service at the building,” said the complaint.