So, When Will SCE Pay Malibu Residents For Their Fire Damages? A Break In The Logjam Is Reported
Written by 991KBU on July 18, 2020
There may be a break in the logjam of legal issues delaying the payout of damages to Malibu homeowners who lost property in the Woolsey Fire, as the the Ventura County Star reports that the judge in the lawsuit may order the release of parts of the state investigative report on the fire’s cause.
Last week, lawyers for the fire victims, Southern California Edison and state prosecutors were told to work out which parts of the state fire report can be released in public, and which parts need to be kept secret as a parallel homicide investigation that is being prosecuted before a Ventura County grand jury.
The fire report details exactly how SCE power lines caused the fire, according to government arson investigators. Lawyers for fire victims and SCE both have a right to see that report before trial, but a parallel homicide case against SCE for the deaths of three people in the fire has meant the state report has had to be kept secret.
Last week, the judge revealed that Ventura County prosecutors were in the middle of presenting evidence to a grand jury, for possible manslaughter charges against SCE, when the COVID-19 crisis put that effort on ice. Revealing part of the state investigation will allow the civil damages trial to proceed.
Damages lawsuits from Woolsey Fire victims are consolidated in the civil courtroom of Los Angeles Judge William Highberger, who apparently was briefed on the Ventura criminal proceedings by state prosecutors last week. The judge revealed the frozen grand jury proceeding last week, the Ventura County Star reported.
Legal observers expect SCE and the lawyers to settle the damages lawsuit before it gets to trial, but SCE has been delaying that until it sees just how strong the case is against them. SCE has already paid out $360 million in a settlement with various public agencies, including Los Angeles County and the city of Malibu, for their damages.
Many homeowners who lost everything to the Woolsey Fire are also hoping for a settlement that fully covers their losses, as the SCE settlement with governments did.
In Los Angeles last week, Judge Highberger said that “the ongoing grand jury proceedings that were aborted due to COVID” were not enough reason to keep the report under wraps, according to a court transcript obtained by The Ventura County Star.
No part of the investigative report has been released to the public, so the official cause of the fire is under wraps. But last October, the president of SCE’s parent company, Edison International, told investors in a scripted earnings report that its equipment was likely associated with the start of the fire.
In other words, the company has admitted to investors that its poorly maintained power lines flashed over during not-unusually-strong Santa Ana winds on Nov. 8, 2018, and the resulting flames chewed 25 miles to the ocean within 24 hours. Three people were killed – sparking the homicide probe – and 1,600 houses burned – 480 of them in Malibu.
“Edison International and SCE are aware of an ongoing investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office of the Woolsey Fire for the purpose of determining whether any criminal violations have occurred. We are not aware of any basis for felony liability,” said Gloria Quinn, a company spokeswoman.
SCE has already told its stockholders that its equipment failed at Woolsey Canyon, on a closed-to-the-public government/industrial research site. Its owner, Boeing Corp., and SCE both face billions of dollars in damages claims.
Editor’s note: Both Zuma Beach FM Broadcasting – licensee of KBUU radio – and the author of this article have both suffered monetary damages in the fire and are both plaintiffs in the lawsuits against Southern California Edison.
