S. Cal. Gas Co. v. Superior Court of L. A. Cnty. (In re S. Cal. Gas Leak Cases)

DUNNING, J.*

*583Seven businesses (business plaintiffs) filed suit to recover damages for purely economic loss resulting from a massive natural gas leak at a Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) facility; they did not claim any injury to person or property. Although our Supreme Court long ago recognized plaintiffs may sue in negligence for economic loss alone Biakanja v. Irving (1958) 49 Cal.2d 647, 320 P.2d 16 ( Biakanja ), such recovery has been limited to situations where a transaction between the defendant and another was intended to directly affect the plaintiff (a third party), whose…