$117 million settlement reached in lawsuit against PG&E officials over wildfire damages
SAN FRANCISCO -- A fire victims trust set up by PG&E on Thursday confirmed a $117 million settlement in a lawsuit over damages caused by deadly Northern California wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The PG&E Fire Victim Trust (FVT) was created in 2020 after PG&E's Chapter 11 bankruptcy to compensate the victims of fires in California from 2015 to 2018. In this lawsuit, PG&E's former officers and directors were accused of a lack of oversight of safety measures which could have prevented the the North Bay Fires and the Camp Fire.
According to a press release issued by the Trust, a settlement in principle was reached in May after more than a year of negotiations with the case on the eve of trial. The settlement was ultimately finalized in July 2022.
"We are extremely pleased with the amount recovered, which at $117 million is one of the largest settlements of its type in the United States," said Frank M. Pitre, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy, lead counsel for FVT in this litigation and a member of the FVT's Trust Oversight Committee. "These funds will be used to satisfy the vast majority of outstanding fire victim claims held by certain federal agencies that assisted in battling the fires and providing assistance to victims. The Trust is required by a Bankruptcy Court order to use certain settlements to satisfy these federal agency claims. It was agreed that these federal agency claims would not be paid from the FVT's cash or stock proceeds. With the vast majority of this settlement with the federal agencies satisfied, the Trust is close to being able to use all future net recoveries from assigned claims to benefit other fire victims."
129 people died in those fires. The Camp Fire is still the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.
