Debt That Belongs to Another

[Mergatroyd]

My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: North Carolina. I am a stockholder of the POCO in question.
I own a number of properties with electrical service in my name. The power company (POCO) has "blended" the street name from one of my properties and the "house number" from another property on a different street and has started billing me for that address. It is an actual address, recently foreclosed. I have never owned that property, rented it, been inside the building. I have driven on the street past the property. The property had the same owner since December 1974 until April 2012 when the mortgage holder became the new owner of record as a result of foreclosure. Sometime in 2010 or earlier, the POCO decided that I was the owner and that I had executed a "revert to owner" request to bill me if the person contracting for the electrical service failed to pay. I got the billing mess corrected in 2010 and now they are doing it again.
It is simply not possible to contact a person who has all 3 of the capabilities 1. Cares enough 2. Has enough authority 3. Has the capability to fully understand --to take care of the mess. I have given the POCO the deed book and page numbers of the ownership history since 1974. I have done all that I can do. I will spend no more time on this. They say that they record all phone calls.
Letters do not get to effective persons as I know from trying to resolve other different problems with them. No problems prior to 2010.
Now I plan to just wait and see if they start collection and post the nonpayment to my credit file. If they do, I plan to sue. But exactly what would be the claim? Slander? Defamation of character?
I would seek monetary and punitive damages plus legal fees.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you don't want to deal with power company phone tag, you can hire a lawyer and take them to court - but my guess is that it will be cheaper to pay the other property's power bills, possibly for several years, than it would be to litigate against the power company. A billing error is not 'slander' or 'defamation of character', and it sounds like the relief you would request (correcting the billing error) would not support money damages. If you want to explore possible causes of action and the potential for recovering attorney fees, run the details past a local lawyer.