PG&E fire victims sue the utility’s ex-leaders
SAN RAMON >> A trust representing more than 80,000 victims of deadly wildfires ignited by Pacific Gas and Electric’s rickety electrical grid is suing nearly two dozen of the utility’s former executives and board members for alleged dereliction of their duty to ensure the equipment wouldn’t kill people.
The complaint filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court is an offshoot of a $13.5 billion settlement that PG&E reached with the wildfire victims while the utility was mired in bankruptcy from January 2019 through June last year.
As part of that deal, PG&E granted the victims the right to go after the utility’s hierarchy leading up to and during a series of wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and businesses in Northern California during 2017 and 2018.
John Trotter, the trustee overseeing the $13.5 billion settlement, is now following through with an action that targets a litany of former executives and board members.
The list includes two of PG&E’s former chief executives, Anthony Earley and Geisha Williams, who were paid millions of dollars during their reigns. The company is now being run by a former Michigan utility executive, Patricia Poppe, who is being overseen by a board of directors that was overhauled during PG&E’s bankruptcy case.
PG&E issued a statement acknowledging the lawsuit without commenting directly on the allegations. “We remain focused on reducing wildfire risk across our service area and making our electric system more resilient to the climate-driven challenges we all face in California,” the company said.
The wildfire victims’ lawsuit is seeking to tap into the $200 million to $400 million in liability insurance that PG&E secured for the former executives and board members, said Frank Pitre, the lawyer handling the case. He told The Associated Press that he hopes to resolve the lawsuit within the next year to help wildfire victims still struggling to rebuild their lives. If the lawsuit is successful, it could help make up for a roughly $1 billion shortfall that the wildfire victims’ trust is currently facing because half of the promised settlement consisted of a PG&E settlement that is currently worth less than had been hoped when the deal was struck toward the end of 2019.
Trotter acknowledged the problem in a Jan. 26 letter to the wildfire victims — many of whom had balked at accepting the terms of a settlement that required half of the promised $13.5 billion to consist of stock in a company with a history of negligence.
But none of the PG&E shares have been been sold by the trust so far, leaving time for the stock to rebound.