(NewsNation) — Hawaii’s Supreme Court will hear questions about how insurance companies can recoup money already paid to policyholders after the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires.
It’s a decision by the state’s high court that could change the fate of a $4 billion settlement made earlier this year.
The August 2023 blaze killed 102 people and devastated part of the island. Officials believe it began from an earlier brushfire that firefighters thought they’d fully extinguished.
Hawaii’s Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday asking attorneys on all sides to submit briefs within the next 40 days.
In a process known as subrogation, insurance companies that have already paid more than $2 billion in claims from the wildfire are seeking to bring independent legal action against defendants blamed for causing the tragedy — including Hawaiian Electric, Maui County and large landowners on the island.
The settlement specifically outlined that insurers can’t go after defendants, meaning that Supreme Court questions could completely overrule the settlement in coming months.
“If they rule that the insurance companies do have an independent right to pursue their own suits against the same defendants, then the settlement agreement is null and void, basically,” Jake Lowenthal, one of the attorneys representing individual plaintiffs, told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Those new suits would drain the billions of settlement dollars. However, if the Supreme Court decides against allowing independent suits, claims processes will be able to proceed for the victims.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
