In 2018, the Woolsey fire tore through Southern California, burning about 97,000 acres and 1,500 buildings across Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Malibu, a costly enclave, suffered the loss of more than 670 buildings worth upwards of $1.6 billion. Many celebrities live in Malibu, and they lost their homes and possessions to the fire very quickly, and among them, according to early media reports, was Shannen Doherty.
Doherty filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2019, per Variety, reporting that the Malibu home she shared with her husband hadn’t burned down, but had been nevertheless “severely damaged” by both smoke and fire, to the tune of more than $1 million. The actor got the legal system involved because she claimed that her home insurance provider, State Farm, wouldn’t pay out her policy. Due to evacuation orders and, once those were lifted, unlivable conditions on the home, Doherty lived in a rental property. She reported that State Farm adjusters took an egregious amount of time to respond, then required excessive paperwork to prove her claims of damages and rights to reimbursements, and then wouldn’t pay out anyway. All the while, Doherty was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for cancer. Doherty ultimately won $6.3 million in the federal lawsuit.
