SAN JOSE, Calif. — A northern California family must pay $750,000 for a massive 2007 wildfire that destroyed papers written by Albert Einstein, a jury decided.

The Santa Clara County jury came to its verdict last week against Margaret Pavese, her husband, Lawrence, and her father-in-law, Ernest, in a negligence lawsuit filed by San Jose State University chemistry professor Dan Straus, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Margaret Pavese was found responsible for starting a 75-square-mile wildfire in September 2007 after she used a metal barrel to burn paper plates and left the blaze unattended. The wildfire ended up destroying four homes and 20 outbuildings, mostly in Henry Coe State Park.

She later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and paid $200,000 in restitution, including $40,000 to Straus for the loss of his two small cabins, an outbuilding and a trailer.

But the lawsuit specifically addressed the contents of a safe inside one of the cabins that held dozens of pages of calculations and notes handwritten by Einstein, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was a friend and colleague of Straus’ late father at Princeton University.

Straus’ lawyer, Dean Rossi, said the three were sued because all of them knew about the barrel fire and the risks.

Copy the Story Link