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Firm Spotlight
- Los Angeles Business Journal Names Amrit Kulkarni to 2023 List of Leaders of Influence: Minority Attorneys
- Meyers Nave Elevates Richard D. Pio Roda to Equity Principal
- Arlene Yang Appointed to the 2022-2023 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Board of Governors
- Meyers Nave Represents the Tongva Community in Historic Reclaiming of Ancestral Land in Los Angeles Area After 200 Years
- Meyers Nave Obtains Dismissal of Two High-Stakes Federal Lawsuits Against the City of Los Altos Under the Telecommunications Act
- Meyers Nave Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
- Meyers Nave Welcomes Jeffrey Wilcox as Of Counsel to the Eminent Domain and Inverse Condemnation Practice
- Super Lawyers Distinguishes Meyers Nave Lawyers in San Diego
- Meyers Nave Elevates Camille Hamilton Pating to Equity Principal
- Meyers Nave Elevates David Mehretu to Principal
- Meyers Nave Secures Key Victory In California Supreme Court Confirming Application of Automatic Stay Pending Appeal to Mandatory Injunctions
- Women's Initiative: Meet The Women Who Lead Practices at Meyers Nave
Helping Calaveras County Battle PG&E for Compensation for Fire Damage
On April 28, 2016, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) issued its Investigation Report finding PG&E responsible for the Sept. 9, 2015 Butte Fire in Calaveras County which consumed 71,000 acres, destroyed 921 structures, caused more than $1 billion in damage, killed two people and injured another. Meyers Nave client Calaveras County is pursuing legal avenues to secure compensation from PG&E. Cal Fire also seeks to recover firefighting costs in excess of $90 million from PG&E for the 5,000 firefighters who battled the blaze. Calaveras County’s press release is available here.
On April 25, 2017, the California Public Utilities Commission issued an $8 million citation to PG&E for a 246-day violation of “General Order 95, Rule 31.1, for failing to maintain its 12 KV overhead conductors safely and properly. This violation began on January 6, 2015, when PG&E and/or its contractors failed to identify a gray pine tree as a hazard or as needing trimming or removal to prevent contact with a PG&E 12 kV overhead conductor. Such contact occurred on September 9, 2015 and started the Butte Fire.”
The Cal Fire report stated that the seventh most destructive wildfire in California history, which took 22 days to control, was sparked by a PG&E powerline that came in contact with a tree that PG&E crews had not properly pruned. Admonishing PG&E’s “negligent maintenance” of electrical infrastructure and surrounding vegetation, the report cites a decision made in the year before the fire to cut two at-risk trees located around the tree that triggered the fire, thus leaving the remaining tree “prone to failure” from wind gusts. The investigation also found that PG&E missed warning signs during at least two prior inspections. “Failing to identify the potential hazard of leaving weaker, inherently unstable trees on the edge of the stand, without conducting maintenance on them, ultimately led to the failure of the Gray pine which contacted the power line operated by PG&E and ignited a wildland fire,” incident investigator Gianni Muschetto wrote in the report.