Complaint Review: Dominion Virginia Power

Husband died 11 days after he retired. I had signed the spouse's agreement for the 50 percent annuity on page three of the contract. Pages one and two were filled out and signed by my husband, James E. R, III, (((REDACTED))). After signing the notary witnessed my signature, and I asked her to read it be cause I was taking pain pills at the time and I didn't want to make a mistake. We had had a disscossion on which amount to go with. My husband was not doing well after his second heart surgery and was having some cognitive issues. When we finally got him to understand that the amount would only be two hundred dollers less, and not half of what he would get alone, he decided to go with the 50 percent option. Present during the discussion were my husband, our youngest son, a man that was helping my husband with all the paperwork, and me. When we finished , my husband went to the notary with me and after the notary did all of her stuff, my husband took the contract, his pages one and two and my page three (that simply said I agreed to pages one and two) and went into the business wher the notary worked at that time, and faxed it to the company. By this time he was carrying a brown paper bag with many many cardboard envelopes, each with retirement documents inside, and went in to fax all three pages. Unfortunately his pages, dated and signed on the same date got switched with the other document giving him a single annuity that would end the day he died. I don't know how they were switched, but I know I never saw that page one and two. The only paper I signed was for the widow's 50 percent portion. According to their by-laws, I had to agree to the amount so I couldn't get any less. The only spousal agreement I signed was for the 50 percent amount. As I was a stay-at-home wife and mother, we joked for years about "OUR" pension. We were married almost 32 years and had a solid marriage.

It wasn't until the day I returned home from the funeral that a girl from the company called to tell me I would receive nothing. I immediately called the man that was present on the day, July 15, 2010, when the decision was reached to go with the 50 percent widow's portion. He remembered as I did that the 50 percent portion was what was agreed upon. I thought at the time that it was just a clerical error and would be straightened out quickly. After talking to various Virginia Dominion Power representatives, I reached the head of benefits, Peter Hilltunin. I thought he was going to help me. After all, he was head of benefits, so I really thought he would be beneficial. I was completely wrong about him. He neither helped me nor even spoke to any of the witnesses to check the facts of what happened the day we discussed and signed the pension agreement. At no time has he or any company representative called any of the witnesses, even the notary or the man, Mac Weatherley, that had helped my husband with the massive amount of paperwork that had to be done. I finally found a lawyer in Richmond, a man named William Francis, who charged $3500.00 to get all the facts and help me get my portion. After he spoke to two of the witnesses and realized that I was not trying to get anything except the 50 percent that I was entitled, he wrote to the company, again Peter Hiltunin, and explained what happened. He felt sure the company would do the right thing once they understood the facts. All the company said was "NO". They still never tried to talk to any of the witnesses and made no attempt to try to repair their error. They took advantage of a man that served them faithfully for nearly 32 years while he wasn't at his best cognitively. He had been on a ventilator for ten days instead of the two or three daysdat