Earnings

Edison CEO Says Some Lawyers Are Steering Eaton Fire Victims Away From $1.1 Billion In Offers

Pedro Pizarro called the idea that eight January trials will settle everything "a deep fallacy" as the November 30 claims deadline nears.

Matteo Parrino Jonathan Ponciano

Matteo Parrino, Jonathan Ponciano

— 3 min read
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Edison CEO Says Some Lawyers Are Steering Eaton Fire Victims Away From $1.1 Billion In Offers

Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Thursday that some plaintiffs' attorneys are telling Eaton Fire victims to skip the utility's compensation program, which has so far produced more than 3,200 offers totaling about $1.1 billion. Southern California Edison's claims window closes November 30.

Trial dates versus the claims program

Pizarro said some attorneys are advising clients against SCE's wildfire recovery compensation program because a trial is set for January, promising they can "breeze through and get paid in a matter of months." He called that "misinformation" and said the notion that eight bellwether cases will resolve every claim is "a deep fallacy."

He said about 35% of submitted claims came with a plaintiff's attorney's help, a collaboration he welcomed. Edison International is the parent of SCE, the utility behind the program.

Chief Financial Officer Aaron Moss said the January bellwether trials cover eight plaintiffs plus eight backups, only 16 of the tens of thousands of plaintiffs, with later trials set for later in the year. Handling eight plaintiffs over several months, he said, "is not an efficient way" through the litigation.

Claims pace and a long runway

Pizarro said October, with days still left, already has more claims submitted than any other month this year. Even so, he said, submissions are still a small fraction of the claims filed through litigation, so the program alone does not yet give enough information to estimate the cost.

Personal-injury limitations run to January 2027 and property-damage limitations to January 2028, he said, and subrogation claims from insurers and governmental claims add more moving parts. Moss said SCE has settled three Eaton claims with insurers' subrogation arms at about 55 cents on the dollar, though reaching those deals carries friction costs.

Earnings and the liability fight

Edison reported third-quarter core earnings of $1.92 a share, against $2.34 a year earlier, when results included a 55 cent true-up from SCE's rate case decision. It reaffirmed 2026 core guidance of $5.90 to $6.20, with a bias toward the middle of the range.

Pizarro said the Los Angeles County Fire Department's reports concluded SCE equipment caused the Eaton Fire's ignition. He said SCE is confident it can show it acted as a reasonable utility and sees no basis for felony liability or willful disregard.

On policy, Pizarro pressed for a special legislative session, saying any bill must reach the governor by the November 15 constitutional deadline. Moss said elevated credit spreads could cost customers an incremental $300 million over the life of the bonds SCE expects to issue in 2027 alone. The company had a market value of $22.6 billion as of Thursday's session.

The November 30 deadline for the compensation program comes first, with the January bellwether trials after it.

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