(10-29) 18:29 PDT SAN BRUNO -- A judge has issued a tentative ruling that would allow victims of the deadly natural-gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno to seek punitive damages from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. during a trial set to begin in January, attorneys from both sides said Monday.
Judge Steven Dylina of San Mateo County Superior Court did not publicly release the tentative ruling, but attorneys who viewed it said he had rejected PG&E's attempt to be exempted from punitive damages in lawsuits filed by more than 350 people in connection with the September 2010 disaster.
Dylina said he would make a final decision Tuesday after hearing arguments from plaintiffs' attorneys and lawyers from the utility.
PG&E has admitted negligence in the explosion of a high-pressure natural-gas line, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes, and has sought to compensate victims for their losses. But the prospect of a jury awarding larger punitive damages, which are designed as a deterrent, would give the plaintiffs leverage in settlement talks.
To ask for punitive damages, the explosion victims must show that PG&E was malicious - that the utility intentionally injured them by carrying out "despicable conduct" with a willful or conscious disregard for their safety.
On Monday, in an argument that offered a preview of the potential trial ahead, PG&E attorney John Lyons said the evidence instead pointed to a tragic "mix-up." He said the 30-inch transmission pipe that ruptured was installed in the mid-1950s with a defective weld, but said there's no evidence anyone at the company - which did not manufacture the pipe - had known of the problem.
"If we didn't know there was a missing weld, obviously we didn't intentionally keep it there," Lyons said.
Attorneys for the victims have said PG&E knew the pipeline was a danger, did nothing to investigate whether it might have defective welds, and put profit over safety.
Mike Danko, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, compared the utility's approach to a game of Russian roulette, with San Bruno residents pulling the trigger every day.
"Eventually that bullet is going to be fired," Danko said.
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