Ventura County ranchers and growers recover more than $50 million from Edison after the Thomas Fire
Robert Boatman and co-counsel recovered more than $50 million for Ventura County ranching and farming families whose herds, fencing, rangeland, and groves burned in the 2017 Thomas Fire.
What happened
The Thomas Fire ignited on December 4, 2017, when Southern California Edison power lines slapped together in high winds above Ventura County. Over the following weeks it burned more than 280,000 acres across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, destroyed or damaged over 1,300 structures, and forced more than 100,000 residents to evacuate.
Agriculture took some of the heaviest losses. Ventura County put preliminary agricultural damage at more than $170 million, with avocado groves hardest hit. Ranching and farming families watched herds, fencing, rangeland, and orchards burn. Bud and Kim Sloan lost more than 50 cattle and thousands of acres at their Santa Paula ranch. Rich and Bonnie Atmore lost orchards, cattle, and thousands of acres. As Rich Atmore described the land, "It's part of our heart and our soul. It's not just what we do for a living, it's who we are."
Robert Boatman of Gallagher & Kennedy represented ranchers, farmers, and growers, working alongside co-counsel from Panish Shea & Boyle, Walkup Melodia Kelly & Schoenberger, and Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy. The first complaints were filed in Ventura County Superior Court on March 14, 2018. They alleged that Edison put profits before public safety and had known for years about the wildfire risk created by its unsafe equipment, aging infrastructure, and ineffective vegetation management.
On April 16, 2018, Ventura County Judge Vincent J. O'Neill Jr. recommended coordinating the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flow cases, citing the complexity of the litigation. Pretrial proceedings moved to Los Angeles County Superior Court, where claims from residents, businesses, and agricultural operators were managed together. Boatman pressed the point that the fire's reach went well past burned homes, hitting growers whose groves and grazing land would take years to recover.
Edison resolved the litigation through settlements rather than a verdict. A separate 2019 agreement saw the utility pay $360 million to 23 public entities, but that deal expressly excluded residents, individuals, and businesses. The private claims Boatman and co-counsel carried for ranching and agricultural clients were resolved later. For its Ventura County ranching and grower clients, the firm recovered more than $50 million, with payments reported across 2021 and 2022.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Panish Shea Boyle: SCE Thomas Fire suits for Ventura County ranchers and growers·Archived copy
- 2.ABC7 Los Angeles: two ranchers sue Southern California Edison over the Thomas Fire·Archived copy
- 3.Noozhawk: judge coordinates Thomas Fire cases in Los Angeles County Superior Court (quotes Gallagher & Kennedy's Robert Boatman)·Archived copy
- 4.Gallagher & Kennedy Injury Lawyers (firm)·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Gallagher & Kennedy Injury Lawyers
All Gallagher & Kennedy Injury Lawyers proven verdicts →Gallagher & Kennedy's Kevin Neal and Kenneth Ralston served as Arizona's outside counsel and secured an $85 million settlement from Google over the deceptive collection of smartphone users' location data.
A Phoenix jury ordered General Motors to pay $17 million for the wrongful death of a Scottsdale woman crushed by her own pickup, a verdict the Arizona Court of Appeals later set aside over a flawed jury instruction.
A Pima County jury awarded Jennifer Johe $5 million on May 23, 2019, in her wrongful death suit against the Sierra Tucson treatment center. Her son Steven, 20, had been admitted in April 2014 for substance addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder and died of acute drug toxicity within days. Robert Boatman represented the family at trial.
Gallagher & Kennedy's Robert Boatman and Mark O'Connor served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in the Bard IVC filter MDL, and the first federal bellwether trial in Phoenix ended with a $3.6 million verdict, including $2 million in punitive damages, for Sherr-Una Booker.
Related class action verdicts
John Eddie Williams, Jr. served as one of five private attorneys retained by the State of Texas to sue the major tobacco companies, producing a $15.3 billion settlement in January 1998, the largest single-case settlement in U.S. history at the time.
As court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik negotiated a settlement requiring 3M Company to pay up to $12.5 billion to public water systems contaminated by PFAS compounds in firefighting foam, the largest drinking-water settlement in American legal history.
As court-appointed co-lead counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik helped negotiate a $1.185 billion class settlement with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva to compensate public water systems across the United States for PFAS contamination tied to firefighting foam.