Hawaii Gov. Josh Green tells AP a $4 billion settlement for 2023 Maui wildfire could come next week

HONOLULU (AP) — The parties involved in Lahaina wildfire lawsuits against the state of Hawaii, Maui County and utilities are close to a global settlement of claims that will be worth a little over $4 billion, Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Green said he’s hoping to finalize the details in coming days, perhaps as soon as Aug. 6, which would be two days before the one-year anniversary of the fire that killed 102 people and wiped out historic Lahaina.

“If that could happen, it would be great. I humbly invite all the parties to finalize the agreement,” Green said in an interview at his office. “It appears that we are almost there, and we only have a very tiny holdout remaining.”

He said all the plaintiffs and defendants have agreed to the global settlement number but final details are pending.

More than 600 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and destruction caused by the fires. In the spring, a judge appointed mediators and ordered all parties to participate in settlement talks.

“Then on July 18, 2024, the Court, along with undoubtedly many others, learned for the first time details of what media reports purported to be a ‘global settlement,’” Judge Peter Cahill, who is overseeing the coordination of the lawsuits, wrote in a scheduling order last week. “These reports proved to be premature.”

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Cahill noted that he hadn’t received any notice for any party “of any settlement let along one of a global nature.” However, he also hadn’t been informed of any impasse in the negotiation process, he wrote.

Maui County and Hawaiian Electric Company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Green said he was traveling out of state for several weeks but ended up working on the settlement while he was away because bringing $4 billion to Lahaina would accelerate the community’s recovery. Settlements of wildfire lawsuits elsewhere have often taken years.

“As I watched other regions that have gone through these disasters, I learned that they didn’t reach settlement for many years, and that left people in a tangled web of despair because they couldn’t really recover,” Green said.

Victims would get insurance, but it was never enough, the governor said.

“I acknowledge that the $3 billion that’s coming from insurance is very helpful,” Green said. “But the additional $4 billion of settlement will hopefully make it possible for people to rebuild however they feel they need to.”