Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Alexander

Case Name: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Alexander

Type of Case: Defamation and negligence

Court: Kern County

Judge(s): Judge Thomas S. Clark

Defense Lawyers: Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien Annaguey LLP, Dennis S. Ellis, Christopher W. Arledge, Nicholas J. Begakis, Dalmacio V. Posadas, Jr.

Plaintiff Lawyers: Parris Law Firm, R. Rex Parris, Alexander Wheeler; Seck Law, Ibiere Seck; The Law Offices of Ralph B. Wegis, Ralph B. Wegis

In the wake of the deadly 2015 explosion in Bakersfield after a contractor's bulldozer struck a PG&E Co. gas transmission line, killing the bulldozer operator and badly burning two women nearby, PG&E sought an injunction to prevent contractor Jeff Alexander from excavating in Kern County.

Nicholas J. Begakis

That provoked Alexander to file a cross-complaint, claiming he was defamed by PG&E's press release about the incident. At one point, Alexander said he'd seek damages, including punitives, in the range of $1.2 billion to $3 billion.

"They thought they had a factual case they could win, along with other negative facts that would bias a jury and cloud their judgment," said PG&E's lead counsel, Dennis S. Ellis of Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien Annaguey LLP.

Ellis and his team proved them wrong, persuading the judge to reject any claim to punitives and the jury to render a complete defense verdict on Alexander's cross-complaint. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Alexander et al., BCV-15-101623 (Kern Co. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 7, 2015).

Christopher W. Arledge

For PG&E, it was the first significant case since it emerged from bankruptcy. The jury's verdict included findings that a number of allegedly defamatory statements made by PG&E were truthful.

Lawyers at Ellis George said that Alexander was represented by "preeminent" plaintiff counsel "who brought their considerable skills to bear in attempting to leverage bias against PG&E into a substantial verdict."

One of the plaintiff lawyers, R. Rex Parris of Parris Law Firm, was succinct. "We lost. It was heartbreaking for the client and for us," he said in an email.

Dalmacio V. Posadas, Jr

Ellis and colleagues, including law partner Nicholas J. Begakis, succeeded in pretrial in excluding much evidence that Alexander hoped to use to stoke bias against PG&E. The barred evidence included prior PG&E felony convictions and accounts of the wildfires PG&E allegedly caused.

"They did get in the San Bruno evidence," Ellis said, referring to a 2010 pipeline explosion there that killed eight.

Begakis, in a key witness examination, put on the PG&E worker responsible for marking the pipeline's route with flags. The plaintiffs disputed that he'd done so. "This was a man they'd maligned, but when he pointed to a photo and said he could see the flags, a juror nodded" that he could see them too, Begakis said. "If ever there was an aha moment, that was one."

--John Roemer