Georgia Natural Gas lawsuit may still get class-action status

A Georgia appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling to dismiss a case that sought class-action status for customers of Georgia Natural Gas, who said they were overcharged by the natural gas marketer.

The June 2 ruling means the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Charles H. Ellison and Susan B. Bresler, can go back to the lower court to seek class-action status.

More than 300,000 customers could be included in the class, said Jason Doss and Anne Lewis, the Atlanta attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

“It affirms what we’ve said from the beginning,” Doss said. “The burden is not on consumers to figure out they’ve been overcharged; the burden is on the natural gas companies to provide accurate and truthful information.”

A spokeswoman for Georgia Natural Gas, which is the state’s largest marketer and an affiliate of Atlanta Gas Light, said the company is reviewing the appellate court’s ruling and had no immediate comment.

But Georgia Natural Gas could ask the appeals court to reconsider its decision within 10 days of the ruling or petition the Georgia Supreme Court to appeal the ruling.

Georgia Natural Gas, along with another marketer, SCANA Energy, was sued last year after some customers complained they were being charged a higher rate than others for the standard variable-rate plan.

In the SCANA case, the company won at trial but later reached a confidential settlement with the plaintiffs without any admission of wrongdoing.