In 2018, Southern California was ravaged by the massive Woolsey Fire (also known as the Malibu Fire,) which began around 2 pm on November 8th between Simi Valley and Chatsworth and scorched its way across more than 97,000 acres in a matter of days. The California wildfire was first reported two minutes after an outage occurred at Southern California Edison’s Chatsworth substation.
The Woolsey Fire started the same day as the deadly Camp Fire in Northern California, which was caused by negligence on the part of Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E). At Wisner Baum, some of our staff and lawyers were evacuated during the Woolsey Fire and have been volunteering to aid friends and neighbors in their communities.
The Woolsey Fire obliterated 1,643 structures and forced the evacuation of over 295,000 residents. It was among several that broke out in California on the same day, including the nearby Hill Fire and the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California.
Three people died in the Woolsey Fire, including two victims who were found in a car at Mullholland Highway. It appears they were attempting to flee the fire before being overcome by flames. The fire also took the life of Dr. Alfred deCiutiis, who was killed while in his Agoura Hills home. His brothers hired our firm to represent them in a wrongful death lawsuit against Southern California Edison that we filed on April 16, 2019.
The damage to homes and property has also been substantial, with hundreds of houses destroyed, 83% of National Parks Service land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area burned, and more than 150 square miles of fire damage.
The fires primarily affected these areas:
The Woolsey Fire started in Woolsey Canyon on the property of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, which is situated in the Santa Susana Mountains near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Driven by the Santa Ana winds, a common factor in Southern California fires, the Woolsey Fire moved south on its first day. The Ventura Freeway (US 101), connecting the San Fernando Valley and the Conejo Valley, was shut down as the fire advanced across it and proceeded into the rugged terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains.
According to the Ventura County Fire Department Woolsey report, electrical equipment owned and operated by Southern California Edison started the Woolsey Fire.
This is not the first time that Southern California Edison has come up during a California wildfire investigation. In the past, Southern California Edison has been fined heavily for lying, misrepresenting evidence, and even destroying evidence related to its role in the 2007 Malibu Fire. Southern California Edison (SCE) later admitted fault for allowing their power lines to be overloaded despite an assessment warning of that exact outcome. SCE eventually settled the lawsuit brought against them by the California Public Utilities Commission for $37 million.
It was also fined over similar issues after a 2011 Santa Ana windstorm left over 400,000 people without power.
In December 2017, the Thomas Fire raged across Southern California, killing two, destroying over 1062 structures, including more than 700 homes, burning upwards of 280,000 acres, and triggering the Montecito mudslide that would kill an additional 21 people. Southern California Edison later admitted that its equipment was associated with at least one of the two ignition points for the fire and currently faces multiple lawsuits over its actions in causing the wildfire.
Call us at (310) 207-3233 to speak with a California wildfire lawyer today.
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In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
