Maui Fires Class Settlement

A proposed Global Settlement has been reached with a number of companies, individuals, and Hawai‘i government entities (the “Defendants”) in lawsuits over damages arising out of the August 2023 Maui wildfires (the “Global Settlement”). A complete list of Defendants is provided in Question 1.

One lawsuit that is part of the Global Settlement is a class action lawsuit captioned Nova Burnes, et al. v. Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., et al., Civil No. 2CCV-24-0000964 (the “Class Action Lawsuit”), pending in the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit, State of Hawai‘i (the “Court”). Defendants deny that they did anything wrong, and the Court has not decided who is right.The parties have agreed to settle the Class Action Lawsuit (the “Class Settlement”) to avoid the costs and risks, disruptions, and uncertainties of continuing the litigation.

The Global Settlement total is $4.037 billion. From this total amount, $135 million will be put toward a Class Settlement Fund, and the remainder will be put toward the Individual Settlement Fund. The Class Settlement Fund amount will fund payments to class members, legal fees and expenses of the class, service awards for class representatives, and class administration costs, and certain amounts will be held back in order to potentially pay other claims, according to the terms of the Settlement Agreement.

If you hired a lawyer to represent you in relation to the August 2023 Maui Fires, you should talk to your lawyer about excluding yourself from the Class Settlement Fund and seeking payment through the Individual Settlement Fund by executing a document called an “Individual Settlement Agreement and Release”. Please contact your attorney immediately to discuss your case.You cannot receive benefits from both the Class Settlement Fund and Individual Settlement Fund.

There are several categories of individuals who are eligible for the Class Settlement (“Class Members”). A complete list and descriptions of the categories are provided in the Eligibility Criteria section below. If the Court approves the Class Settlement and it becomes final, payments will be made to eligible Class Members based on an allocation plan approved by the Court.

Class Members will be able to begin submitting claims now. The types of claims that are part of the Class Settlement are described Question 8. Please check this Website regularly for updates.

The Class definition includes nine categories of damages. Anybody who suffered the damages described in one or more of the nine categories on account of the Maui Fires is a Class Member and is eligible for compensation from the Class Settlement. You may fall into more than one of these categories.

You are a Class Member if you:

• Owned, rented, or resided on real property, or owned personal property, within the Fire Perimeters (see below) or within 0.5 miles of the Fire Perimeters on August 8, 2023; or
• Owned, operated, or otherwise worked for or in connection with a business within the Fire Perimeters or within 0.5 miles of the Fire Perimeters at any time between August 8, 2023, and October 8, 2023; or
• Were present within the Fire Perimeters or within 5 miles of the Fire Perimeters at any time between August 8, 2023, and 9:00 a.m. on August 9, 2023; or
• Suffered physical injury due to the Maui Fires, or are Eligible Relatives of such persons; or
• Are personal representatives or Eligible Relatives of a person who died due to the Maui Fires; or
• Are Immediate Family Members of Persons who were present within the Fire Perimeters on August 8, 2023; or
• Purchased a ticket prior to August 8, 2023, for travel by plane or ship to Maui between August 8, 2023, and October 8, 2023, and suffered economic loss that was not fully refunded due to trip cancellation or delay; or
• Had damage to their property on Maui between August 8, 2023, and October 8, 2023, from the Maui Fires; or
• Owned or operated a business on Maui that suffered damages resulting from a decline in tourism between August 8, 2023, and October 8, 2023.

“Fire Perimeters” means the areas that were burned by the Maui Fires. This will be determined using the Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (“WFIGS”) Group Interagency Fire Perimeters maps maintained by the National Interagency Fire Center. To view a map and check whether you are within the geographic boundaries for the Lahaina, Olinda, or Kula Fires, click here.

“Eligible Relatives” means you are a surviving spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, child, father, mother, or any other person wholly or partly dependent upon a person who died or suffered physical injury due to the Maui Fires, or any other Person who asserts a claim based on the death or physical injury of another due to the Maui Fires.

An “Immediate Family Member” means you are a spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, grandchild, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, and equivalent adoptive relationships of the Person present within the Fire Perimeters.

Excluded from the Class are: (a) Defendants and their counsel; (b) the judges and judicial officers to whom any of the Maui Fires cases are assigned; (c) insurers and insurance syndicates that claim or could claim damage or harm regarding the Maui Fires arising out of a right of subrogation or reimbursement; and (d) anyone who validly excluded themselves from the Settlement, including those who have “opted-out” by hiring a lawyer to pursue their own claims. Exclusion (c) does not preclude an insurer from submitting a claim on behalf of its policyholder under certain circumstances. Also excluded are those who execute an Individual Settlement Agreement and Release before October 7, 2025, in order to participate in the Individual Settlement Fund through attorneys they individually hired.