Aug. 4--BROWNSVILLE Â-- The trial of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by Hino Electric Power Co. against the City of Harlingen and two power companies begins today in 357th state District Court.

Hino Electric claims city officials agreed on April 26, 2006, to an extension from Jan. 1, 2007 through Sept. 30, 2007 of a contract to provide electricity to the city, but later broke that agreement.

Constellation Energy Services Inc. and Central Power & Light Co. Energy Services Inc. are also named as defendants in Hino Electric's lawsuit.

Hino Electric claims that Constellation and CPL "willfully and intentionally" interfered with the valid contract between (Hino) and the city, causing Hino to lose $540,000 in income, the lawsuit states.

Interim City Attorney Rick Bilbie said Monday the city is no longer directly involved in the case and that it now just involves issues between the power companies.

But Alex Hinojosa Jr. said his company's attorneys have been trying to obtain an audio recording of a Sept. 27-28, 2006 special city meeting at which officials voted to cancel the agreement with Hino Electric.

Although city officials claimed the audio tape of the meeting was accidentally erased, officials refused to allow experts hired by his company to try to recover the lost conversation from the tape, Hinojosa said.

A jury for the trial was picked Monday, a court official said.

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