Lyon receives $5 million as part of the agreement
Daniel Lyon
A lawsuit over the 2015 Twisp River Fire was settled just before arguments were scheduled in Washington Supreme Court, awarding $5 million to firefighter Daniel Lyon, who was severely burned in the blaze.
The settlement also resolved claims by federal and state agencies for fire-suppression costs and by property owners and insurers for their losses, who shared almost $10 million in the consolidated lawsuit.
“It’s a universal settlement of all the claims,” attorney Rod Nelson said last week. Nelson represented 11 property owners and helped broker a deal among attorneys for all the parties. Lyon agreed to withdraw his appeal as part of the settlement, Nelson said.
Lyon sued the Okanogan County Electric Cooperative (OCEC) in May 2018, alleging that OCEC’s failure to properly maintain trees growing under its powerlines caused the fire. Lyon, a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service, contended that what’s called the professional rescuer doctrine is unconstitutional because it prevents professional first responders from seeking damages.
OCEC contended that Lyon’s suit was barred by the doctrine. The electric coop also disputed Lyon’s conclusions about the cause of the fire and denied liability for the blaze.
In addition to the $5 million to Lyon, the settlement awards $900,000 to the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for fire suppression; $1,100,000 to the U.S. Forest Service for fire suppression; $2,550,000 to several insurance companies to reimburse claims they’d paid out to policyholders for property damage; and $6,200,000 to Nelson’s 11 clients — a total of $15,750,000.
Mediation in the fall didn’t produce an agreement. The parties tried again in December and those negotiations led to the last-minute settlement, Lyon’s attorney Steve Bulzomi said.
A last-minute agreement by OCEC’s insurer to pay the maximum policy coverage of $15 million was key to the deal, Nelson said. In addition, the insurance company for the Douglas County Public Utility District (PUD) paid $500,000 and Washington state paid $250,000.
The PUD and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) were named as defendants in the case because the PUD owns the land where the fire started and WDFW leases land from the PUD for a salmon-recovery project.
A 2016 investigation by DNR found OCEC hadn’t followed its own policy for maintaining vegetation under a powerline. That allowed the trees to grow so tall that they came into contact with the powerline, creating sparks and starting the blaze, DNR concluded. OCEC, the PUD, and WDFW all denied liability for the fire.
Last-minute deal
Nelson, who’s based in Yakima, was in the Methow Valley over the Martin Luther King Day weekend. He was at The Barnyard Cinema in Winthrop that Monday when he got a call from OCEC attorney Grant Lingg saying that the co-op’s insurance company was willing to pay the policy limit of $15 million. That triggered settlement offers from the PUD and WDFW, Nelson said.
“It was pretty dramatic. I’d hoped to be done earlier, but this was the best opportunity,” Nelson said. Oral arguments were scheduled in state Supreme Court the following day and they scrambled to reach all the lawyers to call off the appeal, he said.
If OCEC’s insurer hadn’t agreed to pay the policy limit of $15 million, there was the risk of a trial verdict in excess of the policy coverage, which could put the insurer in a bad-faith posture vis-à-vis their client, Bulzomi said.
Lawyers for both sides asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case and presented brief arguments to the court on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Although the Supreme Court justices agreed to dismiss the case, they’re not required to, Bulzomi said. Still, the settlement rendered the appeal moot and courts need parties to resolve theoretical questions, he said.
“For me, it was rewarding because it was a difficult thing to accomplish,” Nelson said. “I was very happy to get it done — it helped my clients and helped everyone.” Some of Nelson’s clients had received no money through their homeowners’ insurance and some got only limited payments, he said.
All the parties worked together to reach the settlement. “Rod did a marvelous job of pulling this whole thing together,” Bulzomi said.
They’re still working on the language for the final settlement document, order of dismissal, signed releases, and payments, Nelson said.
Doctrine still in force
Lyon’s $5-million settlement doesn’t establish any precedent with regard to the professional rescuer doctrine, although nine firefighters injured in a gas explosion in Seattle have petitioned the high court to hear their case, Bulzomi said.
Lyon, who was a reserve police officer with the Milton, Washington, police force when he was injured in the fire, has reenrolled in the policy academy. “Daniel is trying very, very hard to reclaim his life,” Bulzomi said. “He’s determined to live as normal a life as he possibly can.”
“I am very grateful that my case calls attention to the plight of injured first responders. I am also grateful my case has reached a settlement so that I can now move on with my life knowing I will have the resources I need for the future,” Lyon said in a statement.
David Gottula, OCEC’s general manager, said he couldn’t comment on the case because the settlement is still in process. OCEC intends to have comments in time for its annual meeting on April 20.
