Hawaiian Electric Settles Fire Claims as Part of $4 Billion Deal

The parties involved in Lahaina wildfire lawsuits against the state of Hawaii, Maui County and utilities are close to a global settlement of claims that will be worth a little over $4 billion, Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press.

Green said he’s hoping to finalize the details in coming days, perhaps as soon as Aug. 6, which would be two days before the one-year anniversary of the fire that killed 102 people and wiped out historic Lahaina.

“If that could happen, it would be great. I humbly invite all the parties to finalize the agreement,” Green said in an interview at his office. “It appears that we are almost there, and we only have a very tiny holdout remaining.”
Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. has agreed to pay almost $2 billion as part of a $4 billion settlement to resolve hundreds of lawsuits over wildfires in Maui that killed dozens of people and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina last year.

The company and other parties reached an “agreement in principle to settle all tort claims” from the disaster, according to a statement by Hawaiian Electric on Friday.

The state of Hawaii, Maui County and telecommunications companies were among the other defendants who signed the comprehensive agreement that will resolve claims on behalf of thousands of homeowners and businesses impacted by one of the worst wildfires in US history. Bloomberg News earlier reported the parties were nearing a settlement.

“Achieving this resolution will allow all parties to move forward without the added challenges and divisiveness of the litigation process,” Shelee Kimura, president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric, said in the statement.

The Maui fires damaged or destroyed about 2,200 structures, the majority of them homes, and killed 102 people. The capital cost of the disaster was estimated at $5.5 billion, according to a damage assessment released last year.

Hawaiian Electric had been criticized for not turning off the power before the fires broke out in August 2023, despite warnings that hot, dry, gale-force winds would create critical fire conditions. The disaster has cast a shadow over the company’s finances, causing a plunge in its share price and the slashing of its credit ratings to junk.

The utility has acknowledged strong winds downed electric power lines and snapped power poles, causing a small blaze near Lahaina the morning of Aug. 8. However, utility executives said firefighters extinguished that blaze and left the site, where a fire later flared up in the afternoon after it had turned off the power. That series of events was confirmed by a report issued in April by the Hawaii Attorney General.

Maui County had sued Hawaiian Electric, claiming it failed to properly prepare equipment for the threat of wildfires. Hawaiian Electric filed a countersuit blaming the county.
He said all the plaintiffs and defendants have agreed to the global settlement number but final details are pending.

More than 600 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and destruction caused by the fires. In the spring, a judge appointed mediators and ordered all parties to participate in settlement talks.

“Then on July 18, 2024, the Court, along with undoubtedly many others, learned for the first time details of what media reports purported to be a ‘global settlement,'” Judge Peter Cahill, who is overseeing the coordination of the lawsuits, wrote in a scheduling order last week. “These reports proved to be premature.”

Cahill noted that he hadn’t received any notice for any party “of any settlement let alone one of a global nature.” However, he also hadn’t been informed of any impasse in the negotiation process, he wrote.

Jake Lowenthal, a Maui attorney selected as one of five liaisons for the coordination of the cases, said Wednesday, “as of now, there’s no settlement.”

Hawaiian Electric Company spokesperson Darren Pai said in an email that the mediation process is confidential and the company would not comment. Maui County didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Jim Bickerton, a lawyer who filed the first lawsuit against Bishop Estate — one of the landowners sued over allegations of failing to maintain vegetation that fueled the fire — wouldn’t comment on the status of current negotiations. But he said, “Any settlement process would include a method for those who have not yet hired lawyers or made claims to have their claim be considered.”

Green said he was traveling out of state for several weeks but ended up working on the settlement while he was away because bringing $4 billion to Lahaina would accelerate the community’s recovery. Settlements of wildfire lawsuits elsewhere have often taken years.

“As I watched other regions that have gone through these disasters, I learned that they didn’t reach settlement for many years, and that left people in a tangled web of despair because they couldn’t really recover,” Green said.

Victims would get insurance, but it was never enough, the governor said.

“I acknowledge that the $3 billion that’s coming from insurance is very helpful,” Green said. “But the additional $4 billion of settlement will hopefully make it possible for people to rebuild however they feel they need to.”

In 2019, Pacific Gas and Electric settled all major claims related to deadly Northern California wildfires of 2017-2018 for $13.5 billion. The deal resolved claims over the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and all but incinerated the town of Paradise, the 2015 Butte Fire and Oakland’s 2016 Ghost Ship fire.

Separately, three years later, former PG&E executives and directors agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over 2017-2018 wildfires.

PG&E is the nation’s largest utility, with an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California.

Associated Press journalist Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report.