Sempra Energy board members to be deposed over damage control emails

Sempra Energy's top officials will be deposed about email exchanges that revealed their plans on how to respond to negative press following the 2015 gas leak at Aliso Canyon, a Los Angeles County judge decided Monday.

The correspondence between three current and former Sempra board members are relevant to the claimants' liability and punitive damages claims, Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Buckley ruled. Buckley took over the mass tort action from Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl in August to rebalance workloads among civil complex jurists. SoCalGas Leak cases, JCCP 4861.

Sempra moved for a protective order last month to keep the board members --

William Rusnack, Kathleen Brown and Lynn Schenk -- from being deposed by plaintiffs, citing the apex deposition doctrine. The three cannot be deposed without a showing from plaintiffs that the group has unique information that cannot be obtained through less intrusive means, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP lawyers argued for Sempra. The apex doctrine keeps parties from jumping up the corporate ladder without first getting information from lower-level employees, Sempra said.

But Buckley wasn't convinced. Sempra "ignores the nuance presented by plaintiffs' deposition requests," he wrote in his tentative ruling. The plaintiffs are not going to question the trio about routine, run-of-the-mill fact-gathering related to the company's actions before and after the blowout, the judge reasoned.

"Rather, plaintiffs have demonstrated an acute need to depose each of them based on their personal knowledge and involvement in response-related discussion and efforts," the judge wrote.

"While a corporation's reputational concerns are certainly something a competent, dutiful board member would consider, the court is unaware of any authority holding that a board member's pursuit of their fiduciary duties to a corporation's shareholders absolves that corporation of liability for punitive damages to third party tort victims," Buckley ruled.

The plaintiffs contended the emails discussed how Sempra and SoCalGas should respond publicly to the crisis. They said that response goes "directly to plaintiffs' fraudulent concealment and punitive damages claims against both Sempa and SoCalGas," their opposition reads.

The board members urged Sempra's then-chief executive officer Debbie Reed-Klages to handle the anticipated bad press.

Schenk had written to SoCalGas' former chief executive officer about the leak, stating, "It seems to me that we have a big PR issue confronting us. Just a thought: Besides dealing with the important issue of the leak itself, perhaps it would be a good idea to revisit how to handle the growing negative publicity."

Jesse Creed, of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP., wrote in his opposition the emails are evidence that Sempra "knowingly prioritized its reputation over the public safety."

Sempra also lost its motion to prohibit the plaintiffs from further deposing Reed-Klages, as she has already been questioned for three days. Reed-Klages retired from Sempra in 2018. She has been the subject of multiple attempts to have her deposition blocked, despite prior court orders to report for deposition. Buckley denied Sempra's motion, finding that plaintiffs have good cause to depose her on contents of previously withheld documents.

Representatives for Sempra Energy could not be reached for comment by press time.