The family of two men who died in the Montecito mudslide filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate of Richard Loring Taylor, and it also mentions his stepson, Pinit Suttithepa.
The lawsuit names Southern California Edison Company, Edison International, and the City of Santa Barbara as defendants. It says Southern California Edison and Edison International’s facilities were responsible for the Thomas Fire, which then contributed to the deadly mudslides in January of 2018.
The two men were killed in the debris flow. The lawsuit says they were “violently swept from their beds and their bodies were found later that day.”
Taylor’s wife and Suttithepa’s mother, as well as Taylor’s daughter, are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says they owned two homes in Montecito, which were destroyed in the mudslide.
Pinit Suttithepa’s two-year-old daughter, Lydia, is still missing. His six-year-old son was confirmed dead. Their mother and grandmother survived the slide.
21 people were confirmed dead in the mudslide on January 9. Two people, including Lydia, were never found.
