The judge overseeing PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy rejected an effort by dissident fire victims to upend voting on the California utility’s reorganization plan, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali said that during a hearing on Friday that he planned to deny a motions asking to throw out votes on the company’s chapter 11 plan cast by families and businesses who lost homes, property and loved ones in the blazes. Some fire victims who want to change the payout deal claimed a lawyer representing the largest group of fire victims has a potential conflict of interest that has tainted the six-week voting process, scheduled to end Friday. The judge will consider the results of the creditor votes when deciding whether to approve PG&E’s plan to reorganize, which includes a $13.5 billion payment to about 80,000 residents and businesses harmed by Northern California wildfires. Lawyers representing thousands of people who have claims against PG&E have been lobbying their clients to vote in favor of the reorganization proposal. A dissident group of victims, including a former member of the official fire victim’s committee that helped negotiate the $13.5 billion deal, asked the judge to throw out thousands of votes cast by clients of Watts, alleging he has a possible conflict because his law firm received a loan that was backed in part by two major PG&E investors.
