New lawsuits blame suicide, terminal illness deaths on Palisades fire

The wife of a man who killed himself after his home burned down in the Palisades fire is among more than a dozen plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits blaming the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other defendants for causing or hastening the deaths of their relatives.

The lawsuits — the first death-related litigation in the Palisades fire — were brought last month under a pilot law, state Senate Bill 447, that expired Dec. 31 and allowed plaintiffs to sue for the pain, suffering...