Firm challenges bankruptcy court’s dismissal of PG&E blackout case

June 5, 2020 – The firm, led by attorneys Nicholas A. Carlin and Brian S. Conlon, today pushed back against a bankruptcy court’s decision to dismiss a class action complaint the firm filed on behalf of client Anthony Gantner and a putative class of impacted Californians, alleging that PG&E was negligent in bringing about the conditions causing it to shut power off to millions of Californians in the Fall of 2019 and that negligence injured Gantner and the class. In March, the bankruptcy court decided that the case was preempted by a provision in the California Public Utilities Code barring court actions that would hinder or interfere with the California Public Utilities Commission’s ability to regulate PG&E. The firm appealed to the United States District Court in San Francisco, arguing that the bankruptcy court did not properly apply the legal test for making such a determination and if it had, it would have found that the action was in aid of, and complemented, the CPUC’s regulatory authority. Further proceedings in the district court are pending.