Illinois Supreme Court Accepts Whistle-blower Case
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Among the 11 cases taken up for review by the Illinois Supreme Court this week is a whistle-blower suit filed by a former Peoples Gas employee who claimed the company falsified safety reports to gain approval for higher rates.
The man, Joseph Pusateri, said he was instructed by his superiors to modify safety reports by reducing the company’s response times to gas-leak complaints.
The company countered by saying Pusateri had no standing to sue under the state’s Whistleblower Act for two reasons: There is no nexus between the response time reports and the Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision to allow rate hikes, and Pusateri was disclosing information that had already been made public in a 2009 audit.
A 1st District Appellate Court ruling authored by Justice Nathaniel Howse Jr. last year overturned a previous decision by Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond W. Mitchell that dismissed the suit at the pleading stage.
The Peoples Gas, Light and Coke Co. — now called Peoples Gas — claimed the commerce commission did not require the safety reports be submitted for a rate-hike decision, and that the agency does not base rate-hike decisions on safety reports “at all.”
Howse and the appeals panel admitted that Pusateri’s complaint was “inartfully drafted” and could be read in a way that would falsely suggest the commission did, in fact, require the safety reports.
“However, the allegation may also be construed, we admit liberally, to allege that 1) PG must request a rate increase from the ICC and 2) within that process, although not required to do so by law, PG uses the falsified reports to support its request. These allegations bring the submission of the falsified reports within the Whistleblower Act,” Howse wrote.
The company also argued that the commerce commission became aware of issues regarding the response times during a 2009 audit.
But the court ruled that those issues involved whether the rationale for lengthy response times was sufficient, not whether the times themselves were a fraud.
The court also denied 22 criminal cases with instructions for the lower courts on how to proceed and denied looking into another 205 criminal and 86 civil cases outright.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Among the 11 cases taken up for review by the Illinois Supreme Court this week is a whistle-blower suit filed by a former Peoples Gas employee who claimed the company falsified safety reports to gain approval for higher rates.
The man, Joseph Pusateri, said he was instructed by his superiors to modify safety reports by reducing the company’s response times to gas-leak complaints.
The company countered by saying Pusateri had no standing to sue under the state’s Whistleblower Act for two reasons: There is no nexus between the response time reports and the Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision to allow rate hikes, and Pusateri was disclosing information that had already been made public in a 2009 audit.
A 1st District Appellate Court ruling authored by Justice Nathaniel Howse Jr. last year overturned a previous decision by Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond W. Mitchell that dismissed the suit at the pleading stage.
The Peoples Gas, Light and Coke Co. — now called Peoples Gas — claimed the commerce commission did not require the safety reports be submitted for a rate-hike decision, and that the agency does not base rate-hike decisions on safety reports “at all.”
Howse and the appeals panel admitted that Pusateri’s complaint was “inartfully drafted” and could be read in a way that would falsely suggest the commission did, in fact, require the safety reports.
“However, the allegation may also be construed, we admit liberally, to allege that 1) PG must request a rate increase from the ICC and 2) within that process, although not required to do so by law, PG uses the falsified reports to support its request. These allegations bring the submission of the falsified reports within the Whistleblower Act,” Howse wrote.
The company also argued that the commerce commission became aware of issues regarding the response times during a 2009 audit.
But the court ruled that those issues involved whether the rationale for lengthy response times was sufficient, not whether the times themselves were a fraud.
The court also denied 22 criminal cases with instructions for the lower courts on how to proceed and denied looking into another 205 criminal and 86 civil cases outright.
Read more in our daily News Update...