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BAKER 

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HOSTETLER LLP

ATTORNEYS AT LAW

SAN FRANCISCO

 

Robert A. Julian (SBN 88469) 

Cecily A. Dumas (SBN 111449) 

BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP 

1160 Battery Street, Suite 100 

San Francisco, CA 94111 

Telephone: 628.208.6434 

Facsimile: 310.820.8859 

Email: rjulian@bakerlaw.com 

Email: cdumas@bakerlaw.com 

Eric E. Sagerman (SBN 155496) 

Lauren T. Attard (SBN 320898) 

BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP 

11601 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1400 

Los Angeles, CA 90025 

Telephone: 310.820.8800 

Facsimile: 310.820.8859 

Email: esagerman@bakerlaw.com 

Email: lattard@bakerlaw.com 

Counsel for Official Committee of Tort Claimants 

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 

SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 

In re:

PG&E CORPORATION 

-andPACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC 

COMPANY, 

 Debtors 

Case No. 19-30088 (DM)

Chapter 11 

(Lead Case) 

(Jointly Administered) 

□ Affects PG& E Corporation 

□ Affects Pacific Gas and Electric Company 

■ Affects both Debtors 

*All papers shall be filed in the Lead Case, 

No. 19-30088 (DM) 

DECLARATION OF MICHAEL A. 

KELLY IN SUPPORT OF MOTION OF 

THE OFFICIAL COMMITTEE OF 

TORT CLAIMANTS FOR RELIEF 

FROM AUTOMATIC STAY TO 

PERMIT STATE COURT JURY TRIAL 

OF 2017 TUBBS WILDFIRE CLAIMS 

 

Date: July 23, 2019 

Time: 9:30 a.m. (Pacific Time) 

Place: United States Bankruptcy Court 

 Courtroom 17, 16th Floor 

 San Francisco, CA 94102 

 

Case: 19-30088 Doc# 2847 Filed: 07/02/19 Entered: 07/02/19 18:23:46 Page 1 of

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I, Michael A. Kelly, declare the following under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 

section 1746: 

1. I submit this Declaration in support of the Motion of the Official Committee of Tort 

Claimants for Relief from Stay to Permit State Court Jury Trial of a 2017 Tubbs Wildfire Claims 

(“Motion”). I have personal knowledge of the facts set forth in this declaration. 

2. I am a member of the State Bar of California and a partner in the law firm of Walkup, 

Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger. 

3. After the 2017 North Bay fires occurred, individual victims filed personal injury, 

wrongful death, and property damage civil actions for damages suffered in or by reason of the fires 

against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”) in Sonoma and Napa Counties. The litigation 

was eventually coordinated in a Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding entitled California North 

Bay Fire Cases, JCCP No. 4995, in the Superior Court of California for the County of San 

Francisco. 

4. The judge assigned to the California North Bay Fire Cases, Judge Curtis Karnow, 

entered Case Management Order No.1, dated March 6, 2018, attached hereto as Exhibit A, which 

appointed me and Frank Pitre as two of the three co-lead counsel in the litigation and an Executive 

Committee leadership team of lawyers representing the individual plaintiffs. 

5. Co-lead counsel Frank Pitre and I, in consultation with the leadership team, have 

identified the individual plaintiffs identified on Exhibit A to the Motion as plaintiffs whose personal 

injury and related property damage claims are entitled to preference for early trial settings pursuant 

to Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”) section 36 within 120 days of the order determining the cases 

are entitled to preference; the claims can be ready for trial within the 120 day preference period; 

and have agreed to request the Court in the North Bay Fire Cases, JCCP No. 4995, to set one or 

more of these plaintiffs’ personal injury and property damage cases for an immediate trial pursuant 

to CCP section 36, subject to the Bankruptcy Court terminating the automatic stay and abstaining 

over the adjudication of such claims in favor of jury trials of the claims in the California Superior 

Court. 

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6. The individual Plaintiffs identified on Exhibit A to the Motion have all agreed to try 

their claims now pursuant to CCP section 36. These Plaintiffs qualify for a preferential trial setting 

by reason of age or infirmity thereby permitting the court to set a trial within 120 days of the 

preference order as stated in section 36. The Master Complaint that sets forth the individual 

Plaintiffs’ claims in the North Bay Fire Cases, JCCP 4995, is attached as Exhibit B to the Motion. 

Four of the eight individual Plaintiffs’ short form complaints adopting the Master Complaint are 

attached collectively as Exhibit C to the Motion; and, the remaining four individual Plaintiffs assert 

personal injury and related property damage claims against PG&E that are within the Master 

Complaint and that can be adopted in a short form complaint fired by those two additional 

individual Plaintiffs upon the Bankruptcy Court granting relief from stay to do so. 

7. The Plaintiffs identified in Exhibit A to the Motion have not filed claims in the 

bankruptcy case. They are California residents, they have been California residents, and will 

continue to be California residents. PG&E is also a California resident. 

8. Attached hereto as Exhibit B is a true and correct copy of the Superior Court’s Case 

Management Order No. 4 in the North Bay Fire Cases, JCCP 4955. 

[remainder of page intentionally left blank] 

 

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9. Attached hereto as Exhibit C is a true and correct copy of the transcript of the 

hearing in North Bay Fire Cases, JCCP No. 4995. Page 16 of the transcript records PG&E counsel 

Kevin Orsini’s explanation that the Tubbs Fire claims were “two-thirds of the potential liabilities, 

that one has the highest probability of getting all the others tied up in a global resolution. . . . we 

set the Tubbs trial first for precisely that reason.” Pages 42 and 43 of the transcript record PG&E’s 

counsel’s explanation that “from PG&E’s perspective, facing the specter of all these many cases 

with all of these different fires, we can’t figure out how to resolve these until we have some 

visibility into what the resolution is going to be of the Tubbs case.” 

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. 

Executed on July 1, 2019.

Michael A. Kelly

Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger 

650 California Street, 26th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94108

Tel: (415) 981-7210

Fax: (415) 391-6965

Email: mkelly@walkuplawoffice.com 

Case: 19-30088 Doc# 2847 Filed: 07/02/19 Entered: 07/02/19 18:23:46 Page 4 of

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