Hawaiian Electric seeks federal trial amid dozens of Maui wildfire lawsuits

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Attorneys for Hawaiian Electric Company, who face dozens of lawsuits blaming the utility for the Maui fires, are trying to get the cases tried in federal court and not on Maui.

Most of the lawsuits say MECO either caused the fires when high winds sparked downed power lines or didn’t do enough to prevent the risk or the damage once the fires began.

Now, HECO is asking the federal courts to try the case in Honolulu with a federal judge.

They argue that federal jurisdiction is possible because one of the many companies and agencies being sued is out of state.

Attorneys suing the company will object to moving the case.

“I don’t think that there’s authority for what they’re doing. And this just seems to be one huge waste of everybody’s time. It’s a delaying tactic,” Lance Collins, an attorney for wildfire victims, said.

“And the second, of course, is that you know, all of these attorneys for the defendants are all getting paid by the hour. So all of this additional work is in addition to making it harder for the survivors and families of victims in the line of fires from getting justice.”

Collins does not think HECO is trying to avoid a jury made up of Maui residents because he says a federal jury would still be sympathetic to the victims.

Hawaiian Electric argues that the federal courts have more resources to deal with such a massive case.

All the lawsuits are expected to be put into a single trial.

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