Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility company, was ordered by a California judge to pay a $3.5 million fine for causing the deadly Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, California and killed dozens back in 2018.

The PG&E guilty plea included 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, along with one count of illegally causing the fire.

The $3.5 million fine from the PG&E guilty plea itself is not the only financial hit the company has taken since the fire. Indeed, an estimated $30 billion in liability from a collection of fires through the years have caused the company to seek bankruptcy protection, which it filed for in January 2019. The Butte County district attorney, Michael Ramsay, also noted that he sought the maximum sentence allowed under state law for the charges. Moreover, the California Public Utilities Commission imposed its own fines on the utility over fires in 2017 and 2018, adding up to nearly $2 billion.

This is also not the first time PG&E has been convicted of serious crimes in recent history. After a gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno (in the Bay Area) in 2010 and killed eight people, PG&E was convicted of six felonies in federal court.

While the PG&E guilty plea brought some financial consequences to the company and to some extent held it accountable for these fires, survivors argued in court that the $3.5 million fine was not nearly enough.

“The court is supposed to provide justice,” said Joseph Downer, the brother of a man who died in the fire, according to The New York Times. “I don’t believe justice is served by a $3.5 million fine. If ever there was a corporation that deserved to go to prison, it’s PG&E.”

Can a Corporation Be Sentenced to Jail?

While corporations are considered people under some legal concepts, they cannot be sent to jail for manslaughter—so, despite the dozens of counts of manslaughter to which PG&E pled guilty, which would normally each be accompanied by at least a year of jail time, no one from PG&E is heading to jail for these deaths.

“If these crimes were attributed to an actual person rather than a corporation, the anticipated sentence based on the applicable statutes to which the defendant has pleaded guilty would be 90 years to be served in state prison,” Judge Deems, who ordered the fine, noted.

William L. Smith, PG&E’s new interim chief executive, emphasized that the company accepts its responsibility for the fire.

“It can never be said too many times, we accept responsibility,” said Mr. Smith. “On behalf of everyone at PG&E, I’m truly sorry for the loss of life.”

Though PG&E cannot, as a corporation, be sentenced to time in prison for these manslaughter charges, state officials are at least trying to hold the company responsibility by forcing it to make significant changes as it moves forward. Even though the PG&E guilty plea has already happened and the sentence passed, the company is still in the bankruptcy process, and needs California’s support to exit that process. Governor Gavin Newsom has demanded that PG&E make major changes to its board and its leadership structure. The governor also said that PG&E must improve safety, compensate fire victims, and exit bankruptcy by June 30.

The judge in charge of PG&E’s bankruptcy process, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali, granted final approval for the utility company’s plan. This is the sign off the company needed in order to qualify for a state wildfire insurance fund. Now, the company said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy in July.

“All of the victims, all of the over sixteen million PG&E customers in Northern California, indeed all of Northern California if not the rest of the country, know the story,” Judge Montali wrote in a memo prior to the final sign off. “Leaving tens of thousands of fire survivors, contract parties, lenders, general creditors, allegedly defrauded investors, equity owners and countless others with no other options on the horizon is not an acceptable alternative.”

Am I Entitled to Compensation?

If you have been the victim of a PG&E wildfire, even if you have already received compensation from an insurance claim, you may be entitled to additional compensation.

Filing a lawsuit can be a daunting prospect, especially in the wake of something as traumatic as a wildfire, so Top Class Actions has laid the groundwork for you by connecting you with an experienced attorney. Consulting an attorney can help you determine if you have a claim, navigate the complexities of litigation, and maximize your potential compensation.

Even if you’ve already received some compensation, you may not have received all of what you’re actually due.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.