Old World restaurant owner in Huntington Beach sues Southern California Edison for negligence

Old World German Restaurant owner Bernie Bischof is suing Southern California Edison after he was severely injured when an underground transformer exploded at the Huntington Beach restaurant in October.

Bischof, 60, filed a civil negligence lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that SoCal Edison created a “death trap” that nearly killed him and injured his family members when a fireball erupted on the restaurant patio during an Oktoberfest celebration on Oct. 5. Four of his family members — his son, Markus, father, Josef, sister, Cyndie Kasko, and brother-in-law, Jason Kasko — were also injured and are also listed as plaintiffs.

Bischof evacuated the patio before the explosion after noticing an odd smell. It was when he returned with fire fighters and some staff that the transformer bank blew up. Bischof suffered second- and third-degree burns on nearly half his body and was hospitalized until Nov. 11. He still wears a bodysuit to compress his scarring, he said Thursday in a phone interview, and still feels pain.

“I can move around and walk around, but it’s an ongoing, lingering pain,” Bischof said. “I also wear gloves ... [Southern California Edison] needs to step up and be responsible for their actions, what they did or what they didn’t do.”

Southern California Edison spokeswoman Sally Jeun said the utility company would not specifically comment on the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages through a jury trial.

“Our thoughts go out to Mr. Bischof and his family,” Jeun said in a statement. “While Southern California Edison is aware of the lawsuit that was filed by Mr. Bischof in relation to the incident that took place in October 2019 in Huntington Beach at the Old World German Restaurant, SCE can not discuss the specifics of pending litigation. The safety of the communities we serve is paramount. SCE has a rigorous and extensive inspection, maintenance and upgrade program, with crews working every day to ensure the reliability and safe operation of the system.”

Bischof’s lawyer, Greg Bentley of Newport Beach-based Bentley & More LLP, said that Bischof was aware that the transformer had prior problems.

According to the lawsuit, the 25-year-old transformer had previously exploded in 2010. The lawsuit alleges that Southern California Edison failed to perform basic maintenance and transformer inspection, and “then spent years lying to Bernie and his family, falsely reassuring them that the transformer bank was ‘OK’ and safe.”

“They did nothing to replace or remove this underground vault,” Bentley said. “It’s shocking to me. Bernie can only report what he’s aware of, and then trust that Edison is going to do their job. They come out and they give him the clean bill of health, and then lo and behold, it explodes again on Oct. 5.”

“The other thing that’s significant, at least to me, is that technology has changed as well. The subject vault is a mineral oil vault, which is much more flammable and explosive. There’s better technology now with what’s called an FR3 oil, which is derived from vegetable oil, which is less flammable. They could have put that in there, and they didn’t. In my career, I’ve never seen a corporate entity fail to heed safety warnings as much as Edison did with this vault.”

Dan Escamilla, a restaurant spokesman, said at the time that Old World suffered no structural damage in the explosion. It reopened on Oct. 9, four days later.

Bischof said Thursday that his sister, Cyndie Kasko, has been handling many of the day-to-day management responsibilities since the incident.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.