A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday, Feb. 18, maintained a temporary restraining order against Southern California Edison for one more week — ordering the utility to preserve documents, data and physical evidence related to the Eaton fire while attorneys representing the utility and homeowners who lost homes in the massive blaze work toward an agreement on a long-term evidence order.
The temporary restraining order was to remain in effect until at least Feb. 26.
Judge Laura A. Seigle declined on Tuesday to address a request made by the plaintiffs’ attorneys last week requesting sanctions against SCE, saying that would be a separate filing and that it was more important to agree on the scope of evidence preservation.
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“We left today with clear guardrails about the preservation of key power infrastructure and a court enforceable commitment from Southern California Edison … to show all data as to why a de-energized line appears to have started this fire,” said Ali Moghaddas, an attorney for the Edelson law firm, which is representing the plaintiffs. “(The judge is) not going to let Southern California Edison destroy evidence on her watch.
“We look forward to continuing to put pressure on Southern California Edison to make sure that they preserve the equipment and data that they are obligated to do,” Moghaddas continued.
Doug Dixon, an attorney for SCE, argued in court that the utility had already been preserving the evidence and will continue to do so.
Edelson attorneys requested sanctions against the utility last week after they accused SCE of lying in court after learning the utility re-energized four transmission lines on Jan. 19 without notifying the plaintiffs’ attorneys ahead of time. Doing so, Edelson said, potentially altered or damaged physical evidence before the attorneys could get experts out to do their own testing on the de-energized lines.
The attorneys said they learned of the re-energization weeks later after SCE sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission with an update into an investigation of whether its equipment may have started the fire.
“Flat out false,” Kathleen Dunleavy, a SCE spokeswoman, said after the hearing. “We sent a letter on Jan. 17, and we did notify them.”
Dunleavy said the utility was “committed to the facts, not these theatrics,” and accused Edelson of putting out false narratives that were harmful to the community and fire victims.
The Eaton fire ignited about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 in Eaton Canyon and burned 14,021 acres before firefighters contained the blaze a month later. Roughly 9,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, mostly in Altadena, and 17 people were killed.
SCE has said there was no evidence yet to suggest its equipment was responsible for the fire. Video from an ARCO gas station allegedly shows sparks falling from a tower shortly before the fire started.
