Utilities change over- New York State

My former tenant is threatening suit to recover the utility bill that was left on in his name. He claims that because I knew they were still in his name I, "willfully, and knowingly allowed the bill to accrue to the current charges in his name, and have been negligent in my duty to place the service back in my name as prescribed by an eviction order."

Seems to me that he would be responsible for taking care of his own utilities,but I'm NOT a lawyer.

Too funny! Unless you were the one who placed those utilities into his name, how could you be responsible to take his name off them? In fact, chances are you wouldn't be allowed to remove them from his name if he didn't tell them he was vacating. (People aren't allowed to terminate someone else's utilities, or people would go around terminating the utilities of people they hate.) Tell him he placed those utilities into his name and it was his job to take them out of his name. If he failed to do that and a new tenant ran up a bill on him, he needs to sue the new tenant. Not your fault. He should have taken care of his business when he left. How were you to know he hadn't terminated them?