January trial for PG&E in 2017 fire

North Bay victims of the 2017 Tubbs Fire can have their day in court in four months to argue that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is responsible for the deadly blaze, a judge decided Monday.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson said attorneys for a group of plaintiffs, several of whom are elderly, can bring their cases to a fasttracked trial, where they will try to convince a jury that PG&E power lines started the fire even though the state said someone else’s electrical equipment was to blame.

A trial is expected to start Jan. 7. Jackson also sided with fire victims’ wishes to keep the proceedings in San Francisco and did not transfer them to Sonoma County, where the Tubbs Fire burned in the Santa Rosa area.

PG&E wanted the cases to be tried in Sonoma County so that the community most affected by the disaster could shape the outcome. But victims’ attorneys said it made more sense

to keep the matters in San Francisco, which is more convenient for lawyers and experts involved in the case. It is also where the bankruptcy case is unfolding and where PG&E’s headquarters are located.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection this year because of its fire liabilities, including from last year’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history. But PG&E has resisted efforts to make it pay for the Tubbs Fire, the state’s secondmost destructive wildfire, because the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said it was caused by a privately owned electrical system near Calistoga.

Victims’ lawyers have always said the state got it wrong and say they can convince a jury that PG&E did start the Tubbs Fire. They convinced the company’s bankruptcy judge to let the dispute proceed to state court, a move that was opposed by attorneys for PG&E.

Even after the bankruptcy judge agreed to allow a Tubbs Fire trial, PG&E tried to bring the matter instead to U.S. District Judge James Donato, who is estimating the company’s liabilities for all wildfires. But Donato said last week that he was unlikely to stop the trial unless it got delayed too long.

Jackson’s decision on Monday mean the District Court judge will almost certainly not intervene.

Jackson’s decision applies to 18 Tubbs Fire plaintiffs, including several who lost homes and are entitled to a speedy trial because of their age or health concerns. Also in the group are some family members of people who died — including Carmen Berriz, who suffocated in her husband’s arms in a pool at a Santa Rosa vacation rental.

Lawyers on both sides still need to sort out exactly how they want the trial proceedings to work in January. Jackson instructed them to keep things together as much as possible, saying at Monday’s hearing that she did not “want to see 18 courtrooms taken up here.”

PG&E has already settled with two other major groups with a stake in its bankruptcy case: local governments and insurance companies. But a settlement with fire victims, including those who survived the Tubbs Fire, would be much harder to accomplish because the two sides remain many billions of dollars apart. Attorneys for victims have panned both the amount of money PG&E included for them in its plan of reorganization filed last week and the settlement it later reached with insurers.

In a statement after Monday’s hearing, PG&E said it was still committed to resolving victims’ claims and vowed to “fully participate in this legal process.”

The parties are due back in Superior Court in about two weeks.