Barham

This case involves a dispute regarding defendant Southern California Edison Company’s (SCE) responsibility for damages sustained by the various plaintiffs as a result of a wildfire, commonly known as the Mill Creek fire, which broke out on October 27, 1993. The fire was alleged to have resulted from a failure in SCE’s overhead power line equipment. After a bifurcated jury trial, judgments were entered on June 20, 1997, in favor of plaintiffs Virgil and Alice Barham (the Barhams) on their causes of action for negligence, nuisance and trespass in the amount of $400,500, and in favor of plaintiffs GTE California Incorporated (GTE) and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), on their causes of action for negligence in the amounts of $193,804 and $295,637, respectively. SCE appeals each of the judgments entered claiming several grounds of error. As to all three judgments, SCE asserts five errors in evidentiary rulings, a cumulative prejudicial effect requiring reversal, a lack of substantial evidence to support the liability verdict, and an error in a jury instruction alleged to have combined theories of negligence and negligence per se. In addition to the…