Aloha,
We are writing to you today with an update on your case against Heco and any other entity that was responsible for the fire in Lahaina last August. As you know, a tentative Global Settlement in the amount of $4.037 was reached earlier this year. The Global settlement is tentative because it is subject to a number of conditions and contingencies that need to be met before the Global Settlement can be finalized and paid out to you for what you went through.
I am happy to report that over the last two weeks we have made great progress in meeting these conditions and getting you closer to the money damages owed you under the law due to the negligence of those parties that helped cause the fire.
At the beginning of the week we signed a comprehensive individual settlement agreement that puts forth a framework for the terms of the trust to be finalized. The ultimate decision though will be made by you when we get to what your individual recovery will ultimately be from the trust.
There however remains two large obstacles for your case before we can have the trust finalized and formed. The first I have been talking about and it is the subrogation issues of the insurance companies who want to be reimbursed from the Trust. I feel confident that the Hawaii Supreme Court will agree with Judge Cahill that the money is intended for the people of Maui and not the insurance companies. We have fully briefed the issue and are just awaiting the insurance companies response and hope to have a hearing in January in front of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The other issue is with the class action claims that have arisen in this case. We feel again that the money should go to the people of Maui who have suffered because of the Fire. However, a class action was filed that claims to represent businesses impacted by a decrease in tourism caused by the fire and tourists who were not reimbursed their travel expenses for their canceled vacations. I am appalled that the Class Action lawyers are trying to take your money owed you under this plan for tourists that missed a vacation and we will fight like heck to ensure they get as little as possible.
To that end we have asked Judge Cahill for an allocation trial for him to determine how much money should go to these sorts of claims. We anticipate that trial will be sometime in January of 2025.
So that's where it stands, we're trying to get to January to have Cahill rule on the Class issue and the Hawaiian Supreme Court to rule on the insurance issue. At that point the trust should go effective and you will be in a position to receive money damages for what you and your family have been going through for the past 14 months.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to breaking this down further in a video update next Friday.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Andrew
