The devastating California fires are still spawning numerous lawsuits, brought by homeowners and others, against numerous defendants in the state. As of February 12, there are about 40 separate, active lawsuits filed against Southern California Edison (SoCal Edison) alone.

In California, state law allows property owners to hold utilities liable for “wildfire damages” without the need to prove negligence. Called Inverse Condemnation, this legal concept, as explained in a fact sheet produced by the League of California Cities, “entitles property owners to just compensation if their property is damaged by a public use.” Rooted in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the “Takings Clause” says that private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation. For example, condemning a home to make way for a new highway would be a “taking” requiring compensation. Likewise, government action that harms private property without physically taking it is known as an “inverse condemnation.”

As the League of California Cities notes, “this liability rule applies to all government agencies, as well as utilities. After a wildfire, inverse condemnation is the way that victims of fires (residents, businesses, and local agencies) recover their costs.”

These latest lawsuits claim that SoCal Edison is responsible for igniting the fires that raged across massive areas, in numerous highly populated, well-established neighborhoods, such as the Eaton fire which impacted residents of Altadena, a town just north of Pasadena that over 40,000 people call home.

Plaintiffs suing over the Eaton fire are comprised of Altadena residents and business owners, plus individuals whose family members died in the fire or were severely injured. The plaintiffs allege that the Eaton wildfire, where 17 people were killed and over 9,000 structures were destroyed, was caused by SoCal Edison, and offered numerous videos as evidence.

On these videos, the plaintiffs claim that the Eaton Fire can be seen igniting and creating the wildfire, via sparks from power lines that are owned by SoCal Edison. In one video, shared by the Associated Press, videos show a fire burning at the base of a hilltop electrical pylon located in Altadena, which residents allege say was the source of the Eaton fire.

Besides video evidence concerning the Eaton fire, photos were also submitted to the court. Some photos show a SoCal Edison tower with exposed wires at its base. Experts in the case, according to information published by the injury law firm Miller & Zois, say that when “exposed grounding wire” is present, the wires may “act like a wick” and lead to vegetation in the area being set on fire.

SoCal Edison is not the only utility being sued by residents and businesses due to the wildfires. The City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power (LADWP) are also being sued via the inverse condemnation legal theory. The lawsuit claims that government actions, or lack of actions, or infrastructure issues added to the property damages due to the fires, as well as the mismanagement of the delivery and supply system of water that was sorely needed during the days of raging flames and smoke.

As of today, at least three law firms are suing SoCal Edison alleging the utility company’s equipment ignited the Eaton fire, one of the four major California wildfires that recently devastated areas of Southern California.

The lawsuits claim that SoCal Edison failed to comply with essential electrical and fire safety standards, failed to maintain power lines properly, and failed to cut back overgrown vegetation.