BREEZY POINT — An appellate court tossed out a "governmental immunity" defense from National Grid and LIPA on Wednesday, allowing 120 homeowners whose homes were burned in a massive fire during Hurricane Sandy to move forward with their lawsuit.
The Second Department, Appellate Division ruled that the agencies didn't have immunity from the suit because they were government agencies.
Both said their response before, during and after the deadly 2012 storm was "discretionary government action," which they brought up when the lawsuit was first filed in 2013.
The residents — who live in Breezy Point and Belle Harbor — are suing the power companies for negligence during the 2012 storm.
A court clerk on Wednesday denied their agencies' final motion, which will allow the homeowners to move forward with their case of negligence in Queens Country Supreme Court, according to lawyer Keith Sullivan of Sullivan & Galleshaw.
"This is a tremendous victory for my clients, many of whom are still trying to repair their homes and get their businesses opened," he said.
"My clients literally lost everything. They deserved better from their power company."
The lawsuit alleges both companies "should have foreseen, among other things, that salt water from the storm surge would come into contact with electrical transmission lines, that fires would result if the electrical transmission lines were live, and that fires would cause property damage."
On Oct. 29, 2012, as the mega storm approached the city, three electrical fires were sparked on the Rockaway peninsula.
The largest was in Breezy Point, which started at 173 Ocean Ave. The six-alarm blaze burned 130 homes and businesses to the ground, and damaged dozens of others.
In Rockaway Park, a fire at 113-18 Rockaway Beach Blvd. set 16 buildings ablaze.
At 239 Beach 129th St. in Belle Harbor, another fire was set after electrical power made contact with the salty storm surge. It spread to the Harbor Light Restaurant and blocks of other homes, ultimately burning 31 buildings, according to the FDNY.
In all cases, FDNY investigators found the fires were caused by salt water meeting electrical power, which had not been shut down before the storm.
During the storm, firefighters couldn't get through high flood waters to put the fires out, causing further damage.
Civilians had to rescue residents who hadn't evacuated — like Dylan Smith, who teamed up with a neighbor to create a makeshift rope bridge and save at least a dozen people. He died two months later while surfing in Puerto Rico.
Sullivan said "unquestionably, the court reached the right decision" on the ruling. He plans to move to trial by the end of the year.
Calls and emails to National Grid and PSEG, which took over LIPA on Long Island, were not immediately returned.
