The law recognizes that trees on private property have special value. So when a tree is destroyed due to the wrongful act of another, the wrongdoer cannot get away with simply paying the property owner for
what the tree might have sold for as timber. Rather, at least in some circumstances, the wrongdoer must pay
Butte Fire
Butte Fire Victims Entitled to Compensation from PG&E for Homes’ Diminution in Value
By Mike Danko on
Posted in Butte Fire
Insurance companies will pay to rebuild most of the homes that were burned down. But even if the newly rebuilt homes are identical to the old ones in all respects, the Butte Fire homeowners will still have a loss. The fact is that a home in the area simply won’t be worth what it was…
Butte Fire: Diverting Money Raised For Tree-Trimming Wouldn’t Be Anything New For PG&E
By Mike Danko on
Posted in Butte Fire
As lawyers for the victims of the San Bruno fire, we learned that the “gas side of the house” at PG&E saves money by collecting money from rate payers to perform maintenance and then deferring the work. The extra money on the books helps improve PG&E’s bottom line, and results in bigger bonuses for…
Butte Fire: Was the Tree Dead or Alive?
By Mike Danko on
Posted in Butte Fire
By now it’s no secret that the Butte Fire was likely sparked by a tree coming into contact with a PG&E overhead line. Jaxon Van Der Beken of the San Francisco Chronicle (who, by the way, won awards for his investigative reporting of the San Bruno PG&E fire), broke that news a week ago.…