Case Victory Feature
Community Foundation Sonoma County
Legal Aid: Pursuing Justice for Journey's End Clients Three Years After the Fire
A landmark feature covering the outcome of a three-year federal lawsuit on behalf of Journey's End mobile home park residents whose homes were destroyed in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Kendall Jarvis, as lead disaster attorney at Legal Aid of Sonoma County, guided 30+ residents through a complex legal battle against Foremost Insurance (a Farmers Insurance subsidiary) that culminated in a $686,786 federal settlement — a case described as a "classic David and Goliath story."
| Case Filed | 2019 |
| Settlement Date | December 2020 |
| Settlement Amount | $686,786 |
| Defendant | Foremost Insurance Company (Farmers Insurance subsidiary) |
| Court | U.S. District Court |
| Judge | The Honorable William Alsup |
| Lead Attorney | Kendall Jarvis, Esq. — Legal Aid of Sonoma County |
| Co-Counsel | Kornblum Cochran Erickson & Harbison LLP |
| Funded By | Community Foundation Sonoma County Resilience Fund |
Background: The Journey's End Situation
- Journey's End: 161-unit mobile home park in Santa Rosa — hit by the 2017 Tubbs Fire
- 117 of 161 homes destroyed; 44 left standing but red-tagged as unlivable (utility/infrastructure damage)
- Residents of intact-but-uninhabitable homes caught in bureaucratic limbo: insurers refused to pay for "standing" homes; FEMA denied aid for same reason
- Many residents were seniors on fixed incomes; 10 former residents died in months following the fire
- Property was sold with no plans to reopen — eliminating any path back to the community
- Described in coverage as a "classic David and Goliath story"