Fire Victim Trust Reports $117 Million Settlement of PG&E Directors & Officers Lawsuit

Business Wire

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The PG&E Fire Victim Trust (FVT), created in 2020 pursuant to PG&E’s Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization to compensate the victims of fires in California from 2015 to 2018, today announced a $117 million settlement of its lawsuit against PG&E’s former officers and directors for damages caused to PG&E in connection with the North Bay Fires and the Camp Fire.

“It is our hope that in holding PG&E’s past officers and directors accountable in connection with the damage inflicted on thousands of fire victims in California, the current board and new leadership of PG&E charts a different course where safety and the protection of customers is the central operating principle of the company,” said Cathy Yanni, Trustee of the FVT. “We are pleased to see early signs of a new focus on safety with PG&E’s recent announcements about plans to harden infrastructure and lay power lines underground, both measures that would significantly reduce fire hazards.”

The Settlement

In connection with PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy in 2020, PG&E assigned under its Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization to the FVT the right to pursue, limited by the availability of certain insurance, certain claims held by PG&E, including claims against PG&E’s former directors and officers for economic and other harms PG&E suffered in connection with its role in many California wildfires that occurred between 2015 and 2018. After more than a year of negotiations, and with the case on the eve of trial, a settlement in principle was reached in May 2022 and 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.”

The Fire Victim Trust

The Fire Victim Trust evaluates, administers, processes and resolves eligible claims arising from the 2015 Butte Fire, 2017 North Bay Fires, and 2018 Camp Fire. Under the direction of the Trustee and Claims Administrator, the Fire Victim Trust provides an efficient and equitable process to review claims and compensate fire victims for both economic and noneconomic damages caused by these fires, including destruction or damage to real estate and personal property, additional living expenses, lost wages, business losses, personal injury or death and related medical expenses, and emotional distress. To date, the Fire Victim Trust has disbursed $4.9 billion to fire victims. For more information about the Fire Victim Trust, please visit www.firevictimtrust.com.