The relatives of a private contractor killed in last year's massive Soberanes Fire near Big Sur have given up pursuing their wrongful death lawsuit against the state of California.
Robert Reagan, 35, died after the bulldozer he was operating tipped over down an embankment several days after the epic Monterey County wildfire began in July 2016.
His widow, Morgan Kemple, and two young daughters filed a lawsuit in March, blaming Cal Fire for his death. Their suit sought compensatory damages and claimed that the firefighting agency was negligent in supervising operation of the dozer.
But a Monterey County Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit last month after the family decided to end its legal bid.
In court papers, the family's lawyer, Cyrus Shahriari of Beverly Hills, wrote the suit was being dropped because his clients faced a California law that makes it difficult to win negligence claims against state government on incidents involving firefighting injuries.