Parties Strike Deal for Servicing Infrastructure at Issue in Homeowners’ Lead Cable Suit

Plaintiff homeowners Gary Blum and Lucia Billiot struck an agreement with AT&T, Lumen and Verizon to permit the defendants to conduct “certain usual, routine, or ordinary-course-of-business maintenance” on the telecom cables that are the subject of their litigation, including lead-covered cables, said their joint stipulated motion Friday (docket 6:23-cv-01748) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lafayette. The complaint is believed to be one of the first class actions brought by homeowners against the telecom industry for legacy lead-laden cables that reduced their property values (see 2312140001). Blum and Billiot allege that the defendants have left behind an extensive network of lead-covered cables and other associated lead equipment stretching across Louisiana. They further allege that the cables are an unlawful intrusion on private property and are causing all plaintiffs and putative class members “property damage and a risk to human health." The parties acknowledge that the defendants must be able to conduct usual, routine maintenance of their telecom infrastructure and associated equipment, “potentially including any lead-containing infrastructure, during the pendency of this litigation,” said their stipulated motion. If the defendants were to be unable to conduct that routine maintenance, “telecommunications services to the public may be interrupted,” it said. The maintenance activities “shall proceed in the ordinary course without any new or additional documentation or other measures beyond what would typically take place for such activities in the ordinary course,” it said. The defendants will be permitted to conduct business-as-usual activities on any of their telecommunications infrastructure and associated equipment, “including lead-containing telecommunications equipment," on all property in Louisiana, except for the named plaintiffs’ property, without notice to those plaintiffs or members of the putative class, said the motion. Actions taken in the course of conducting such activities “shall proceed in the ordinary course without any new or additional documentation or other measures” required of the defendants, beyond what would typically take place in the defendants’ usual business process, it said.