Is electric company responsible for damage to clock in power outage?

Question

There was a power outage in my neighborhood last week, and my apartment was partially without power.  A digital clock was damaged when the power was restored, and it is no longer working.  This is a N.Y. Mets scoreboard clock that displays the time, date (month and day), and temperature, and sells for about $45.

I called my electric company, Con Edison (Queens, NY), and they told me that they have no process for filing a claim for anything other than losses of perishable food.  I didn't have any problem with food because except for 30 minutes when I had no power at all, I had power in about half the outlets including the refrigerator.

I'm trying to figure out if Con Edison is responsible.  If the power outage (or improperly restoring power) caused the problem, I'll sue them in small claims court.  My question is, is this Con Edison's fault?  I don't want to go to court and waste my time and gas and lose the lawsuit and the $15 filing fee if it wasn't their fault.  Was my clock a defective piece of junk, and would the same thing have happened simply by unplugging the clock and plugging it back in?  Or could there have been some sort of extra power surge that shouldn't have happened and it is really there fault.  I have surge suppressors on my televisions and computer, but not on my other clock, phones, microwave, air conditioners, or refrigerators, and nothing else was damaged.

electricpole · Accepted Answer

You wold have to determine if or how Con Ed "improperly" restored the power. 
you do make an important observation, which is your "partial power" condition, or what is known as a "brown out" instead of a "black out". When one phase of primary is out on a "Delta" system which Queens being older, it probably has for primary service, you can get errant voltages on the side of the transformer, which still feeds into 1/2 of your 220 V panel. This is a more likely scenario than something in the restoration technique, which consists of merely closing a breaker at a substation for field switch or closing a pole top fuse. Although if the line has "regulators" on it, which make small adjustments to phase voltage, depending on loading, they can (rarely) cause voltage variations on newly restored circuits, but still only few percentage points in either direction. 
To that point, if you ever have partial power again, it is good practice to just throw the main to prevent problems. Which predominantly occur with motors and voltage sensitive devices. 
I do believe that the PSC does not have any mandate in it's charters for "continuous" electric service, just "reliable" service, and they set some sort of metric in the range of 99.99xxx%.

What you do with your situation is up to you, I only am attempting to add some information, and not much at that.

Jill S · Answer

Did you check the breaker for that outlet?
Have you tried the clock on a different outlet?

Is electric company responsible for damage to clock in power outage?

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