Much of the Palisades was destroyed in the January 7, 2025 Fire. No one wants to be responsible for the devestation.
Photo: STEVE PESCE
The City of Los Angeles filed a cross-complaint against the State of California on February 5, seeking indemnity and contribution for the fire victims’ claims against the City.
A February 10 hearing (postponed from February 5) was to decide whether victims will ever be allowed to uncover facts through discovery, or whether the case will be cut off before evidence is examined.
The decision being considered is not about damages, and it is not yet about assigning blame. It is about whether government agencies can be held accountable when systems fail at a catastrophic scale.
Why would the City join victims in this lawsuit?
According to lead attorney Roger Behle of Foley, Bezek, Behle & Curtis, “the City has now sued the State along with SoCal gas, who sued the State last month. More than 70 insurance companies have also sued the State.
“In the cross-complaint, the City asking the court to find the State of California caused plaintiffs alleged injuries and damage (that’s the fire victims),” Behle said. “And the City goes on to say, well, if there’s a finding that the City and the State are both responsible, damages should be divided up in what we call apportionment or allocation between the City and the State.”
Behle said what was interesting was the timing because this kind of complaint could have been filed in March or even years after the case is over. The timing could signal that the City realizes the case is not going anywhere and wanted to get it on file.
The City’s filing “incorporated by reference all of our allegations,” Behle said. “Rather than copying the more than 200 pages of allegations from our complaint, they’ve simply adopted our allegations against the state.”
Behle said he hopes the City will agree to release the firefighters depositions sooner than the 30 days hold that the City requested. Without disclosing more the attorney said “what I heard last Friday from one witness was stunning. . .and will be a game changer.”
To listen to the entire conversation on the John Kobylt show (KFI 640) click here.