The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled insurers that already paid claims to property owners and others as a result of the 2023 Maui wildfires cannot intervene in a settlement to recover that money back from those blamed in court for the catastrophe.
The insurers’ sole remedy, according to the court, is the lien-claims process provided by Hawaii statute to recover claims paid to policyholders that settle with defendants. The court’s Feb. 10 ruling was the latest development in several lawsuits that arose in the aftermath of wildfires that swept through Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023, killing more than 100 people.
In the wake of the Lahaina fires, numerous lawsuits were filed against, among others, Hawaiian Electric Company, Kamehameha Schools, the State of Hawaii and the County of Maui.
Individual claims were filed in the Hawaii Circuit Court of the Second Circuit by residents affected by the wildfires, three parallel class actions were brought in the First and Second circuits on behalf of injured persons that had not yet filed individual claims, and several insurers brought subrogation claims in the First Circuit to recover damages from the defendants.
The three class actions were removed to federal court and then refiled as a consolidated class action before Judge Peter Cahill of the Second Circuit. As of December 2025, about 12,000 people have reportedly joined the class action.
While the cases were proceeding, the parties negotiated a proposed global settlement in August 2024.
