Timber giant loses again over Moonlight Fire
By Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected efforts by Sierra Pacific Industries to back out of a $100 million settlement over the massive Moonlight Fire that it claims was based on fraud and deception by government prosecutors in Sacramento.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that claims by Sierra Pacific that it was the victim of a “trail of fraud” by government prosecutors seeking a huge payday from a deep-pocketed defendant did “not constitute fraud on the court” as the company had claimed.
The decision comes after years of intensely bitter fighting by Sierra Pacific, the state’s largest private landowner, over a settlement agreement the timber giant entered into in 2012.
