L.A. Must Pay $8.5 Million for 1978 Fire, Court Decides
- Share via
SAN FRANCISCO — The City of Los Angeles will have to pay $8.5 million to eight insurance companies and 22 property owners whose homes were damaged in the disastrous 1978 fire in Mandeville Canyon touched off by a fallen power line, lawyers in the case said Tuesday.
The state Supreme Court last week refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision affirming the judgment against the city and the Department of Water and Power.
The Oct. 23, 1978, blaze destroyed 230 homes and damaged 45 others. The city was held liable based on the expanding area of the law that public entities must pay property owners for any damage attributed to government action. The city was held liable because its power lines were felled by Santa Ana winds, sparking the blaze, said plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael W. Connally.
Deputy City Atty. Diana Mahmud said the large judgment points out the need for legislation limiting awards in suits against public entities.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
In this episode, we discuss the history here, what lessons were learned — and not — and how that can inform what we we do this time around as we attempt to rebuild Altadena and the Pacific Palisades.
This week’s episode covers the sentencing and future legal proceedings for “The Ketamine Queen” — the doctor who pled guilty to supplying Matthew Perry with ketamine.
This week, “A Matter of Degrees,” hosted by Dr. Leah Stokes & Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, discuss how insurance companies are failing to accommodate for the impacts of climate change.
