Fire Victim Trust suing former PG&E execs, officers

SAN FRANCISCO » The Fire Victim Trust filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court against several former Pacific Gas and Electric Company officers and directors for their role in the Camp Fire, as well as the North Bay fires in 2017. The Fire Victim Trust is paying claims to wildfire victims.

The lawsuit, which specifically names several former directors and officers for PG&E including Geisha Williams, the CEO and president of PG&E when the Camp Fire broke out. The lawsuit alleges that the damages from the Camp Fire and the North Bay fires were a result of the defendants’ “lack of fiduciary duties.”

A total of 22 directors and officers are named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of retired Justice John Trotter, a trustee of the Fire Victim Trust, which was opened in July 2020. The firm Cotchett, Pitre and Mccarthy, LLP of San Francisco is representing Trotter and the Fire Victim Trust.

“It is our duty to hold accountable the prior officers and directors who grossly neglected to do their jobs in the lead-up to the North Bay fires and the Camp Fire. These individuals had the responsibility to customers, employees, shareholders and the public to ensure that safety was one of PG&E’S highest priorities. They had the power to do so. Yet they failed, at enormous financial cost to the company and indescribable cost to entire Northern California communities,” Trotter said in a press release.

In June 2020, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and for starting the Camp Fire in Butte County Superior Court. The company faced a maximum fine of $3.5 million.

Since the criminal case in June 2020 was filed against a corporation, no one from PG&E faces any prison time. However, the lawsuit filed Wednesday is against several former specific executives of the company and the Fire Victim Trust said in the release that it is seeking “monetary damages, and injunctive or declaratory relief necessary to reform PG&E’S corporate governance.”

“However, the defendants in this case, who were responsible for the risk management failures that caused the 2018 Camp Fire can and should be held liable for the breaches of their fiduciary duties resulting in the company’s failure to inspect and maintain aging equipment,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also states that PG&E’S risk management failures were a result of prioritizing profits over safety.