Saying it would "further complicate an already complex procedure," the judge overseeing massive litigation stemming from the 2007 wildfires in San Diego County ruled against two class-action cases that would have added hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs into litigation against San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
The motions for class certification denied by Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss sought to create two groups: those with direct damage from the fires and those who suffered as a result of having to be evacuated from their homes. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the judge's action.
As the orders (below) show, Judge Strauss denied the plaintiffs' lawyers' motion for a liability-only class on grounds that "there is insufficient commonality among class members and a class action is an inferior method with which to proceed."
In the denial of class certification for the evacuees, he wrote that there is no way to determine which class member was evacuated because of a specific fire (and so there is no ascertainable class), the determination of each class member's damage is increasingly diverse (a lack of commonality), and that class action "is not a superior or more manageable method of litigation."
"Based upon the above discussion," Strauss wrote, "no class representative will have a typical claim because it is unclear what constitutes a typical claim."
Superior Court Order Denying Plaintiffs' Class Certification Motion of Evacuee Class.pdf
Superior Court Order Denying Plaintiffs' Certification Motion for a Liability-Only Class.pdf