Victims of a deadly 2023 Hawaii wildfire that decimated the town of Lahaina are expected to testify in court during an unusual trial to determine how to divide a potential $4 billion settlement.
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Five months later, however, an unusual trial starting Wednesday will delve into difficult questions about survivors’ losses as a judge decides how to divide. Some victims will take the witness stand, while others have submitted pre-recorded testimony, describing pain made all the more fresh by theThe trial won't determine fault. Defendants blamed for the blaze including the state, power utility Hawaiian Electric and large landowners have already agreed to the settlement amount.
“A class action is everybody suffering the same loss,” said Damon Valverde, whose Lahaina sunglasses company burned. “And I suffered quite a bit more than others, and others suffered quite a bit more than me.”Baclig said in a declaration that if called to testify he would describe how for three agonizing days he searched for them — from hotel to hotel, shelter to shelter. “I clung to the fragile hope that maybe they had made it off the island, that they were safe,” he said.
The class action includes some people who lost homes and businesses, but also tourists whose trips were delayed or canceled. Only a nominal portion of the settlement should go toward that group, said Jacob Lowenthal, one of the attorneys representing victims — like Baclig — who have filed their own lawsuits, known as the"individual plaintiffs.”
Peter Cahill Damon Valverde Kevin Baclig Josh Green U.S. News
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