Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle rejected a motion filed by PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) last week to dismiss the claims asserted by the city of Los Angeles that PwC fraudulently drew the city into a contract to replace Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) customer billing and information system. The judge held that the city may continue to pursue the claims.

The ruling allows the city to pursue additional millions of dollars in damages that exceed the $60 million paid by LADWP to PwC to oversee the design, systems integration and implementation of the new billing system.

“We’re pleased the court agreed that our case against PriceWaterhouse Coopers, based on the city’s allegations of fraud on the ratepayers of Los Angeles, can proceed,” said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer. “We expected PriceWaterhouse Coopers’ lawyers to play hardball, and we’re more than ready for that fight.”

The court’s decision will allow LADWP to attempt to recover much of the costs to customers for the problems the department experienced with the billing system design and implementation, LADWP GM Marcie Edwards added.

“We hired PwC and paid them $60 million to deliver a product that worked,” she said. “Instead, as our complaint alleges, we ended up with a nightmare for our customers and our employees as we managed the fallout of the faulty integration and programming of the new system.”

LADWP’s complaint also alleges that PwC fraudulently misrepresented their track record to secure the contract, among other misrepresentations.

“While we work to recover every penny spent in connection with the faulty implementation, we can report that we have since fixed most of the critical billing system problems, and at this time we are exceeding industry standards for on-time bills,” Edwards said.