Allegations against debris haulers after October 2017 fires dismissed in federal court

At least two federal lawsuits against debris removal companies lodged by North Bay residents whose property burned in the October 2017 wildfires have been dismissed.

The litigation against AshBritt Environmental and Tetra Tech accused those companies of improper debris removal tactics, including hauling away excess soil for self-enrichment, as they were paid by the ton. In two separate cases, attorneys representing those companies fended off claims filed on behalf of North Bay residents, including some Sonoma County property owners who claimed the over-excavation cost them thousands of dollars per property.

Both cases came to an end Oct. 15 when the two companies and the plaintiffs agreed to a brief statement dismissing the case for good. The dismissals, filed with U.S. District Court in San Francisco, acknowledged the absence of any settlement or exchange of payment to resolve the litigation.

For AshBritt — a Florida-based based disaster recovery and environmental services contractor that filed a suit of its own against California officials this summer — the dismissal represented welcome legal relief more than three years after the fires hit Northern California.

“This action reaffirms that AshBritt followed all laws and regulations during the clean-up and met all contract requirements for debris removal,” an AshBritt spokeswoman said in a statement. “The company is pleased with the dismissal of this case, which was the only such case arising out of AshBritt’s work in California.”

Three attorneys with the Arns Law Firm in San Francisco listed in court documents as representatives for the main plaintiff, Sonoma County property owner Craig Mason, and other potential plaintiffs, did not respond to requests for comment.

Post-fire debris cleanup operations were overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which worked with the contractors and subcontractors that hauled away about 2.2 million tons of debris from more than 4,500 properties in Sonoma, Lake, Napa and Mendocino counties after the October 2017 firestorm. The $1.3 billion cleanup effort was deemed to be complete in June 2018.

But in August 2018, the California Office of Emergency Services wrote to the Army Corps to cite numerous debris removal issues, including “obvious over-scraping” of some properties. Other properties that had been deemed clear by the Army Corps still showed signs of “unacceptable” contamination, the state agency alleged. An Army Corps spokesman responded by defending the debris removal mission while acknowledging “incidental damage” caused by the use of heavy machinery.

In a September status update filed with the court in Mason’s case, the parties appeared at an impasse.

Mason had aimed to launch a class-action lawsuit on behalf of “all owners of real property” in four counties where AshBritt and its subcontractor, Tetra Tech, removed fire debris.

Mason’s case initially included allegations under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, but the claims filed under RICO — a 1970s law targeting the mafia and other gangs — were later dropped from the suit.

The lawsuit’s key allegations were that AshBritt and Tetra Tech “improperly removed” too much soil and structural remains that were unaffected by the fires while leaving contaminated materials behind.

The plaintiffs asked for unspecified damages — calculated “on the value of soil and trees removed” — to make up for alleged over-excavation to their properties.

In the same September joint filing, AshBritt and Tetra Tech denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

One question that was expected to arise was whether the contractor and subcontractor, as agents of the Army Corps for the debris removal task, could be exempt under derivative sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine that extends litigation protections to government contractors.

An AshBritt spokeswoman said the dismissal forestalled the parties from filing any briefs on that topic ahead of a deadline set for last Monday.

The defendants also had challenged the attempt to position the suit as a class-action lawsuit as “manifestly overbroad,” according to the September case status update. And AshBritt also outlined another strategy: calling witnesses to determine how much of the damage should be allocated to PG&E, which made deals worth roughly $25.5 billion with fire survivors, insurance companies and local governments to settle claims arising from recent wildfires.

A similar case, filed by property owners against Environmental Chemical Corp. — which like AshBritt received a debris removal contract from the Army Corps of Engineers and hired Tetra Tech — came to a similar end on the same day.

In July, AshBritt filed a lawsuit of its own against Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Office of Emergency Services. The civil suit argues that a “California Only” restriction improperly excluded the company from bidding on a tree removal project following the 2018 Camp fire. It also alleges Ghilarducci in 2015 told an AshBritt official that the company wouldn’t work in the state as long as he was in charge.

Attorneys for Ghilarducci and another state official said they would “vigorously contest” those allegations. A judge granted the defendants’ initial motion to dismiss but allowed AshBritt to refile its complaint — which it did Oct. 15, the same day the debris removal cases were dismissed.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.