Portland, Oregon: PacifiCorp Wildfire Case Goes Before the Oregon Supreme Court in Salem

Oregon's highest court takes up the state's biggest wildfire case on Tuesday, November 3, when the seven justices of the Oregon Supreme Court hear oral arguments at 1:30 p.m. in Salem in James v. PacifiCorp. About 50 to 75 wildfire survivors planned to travel to the court for the hearing, the Salem Statesman Journal reported. The Portland based utility, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, faces a possible return of jury awards that Reuters put at $1.25 billion, with far more at stake if the verdict stands.

Claimants say PacifiCorp equipment and its failure to shut down power lines during a Labor Day weekend windstorm in 2020 caused the Santiam Canyon, Echo Mountain Complex, South Obenchain and 242 fires, which damaged more than 2,000 properties, Reuters reported. PacifiCorp has denied negligence and says victims should not sue as a group because the fires were more than 100 miles apart.

How the case got here

In June 2023, jurors in Multnomah County Circuit Court found PacifiCorp at fault for all four fires, after Judge Steffan Alexander instructed them that they may assume that the evidence at trial applies to all class members. Later mini trials awarded $1.25 billion to 201 plaintiffs, including for emotional distress, Reuters reported, and more than 1,000 additional plaintiffs still await trial. The Statesman Journal reported that another 1,400 victims could be owed damages, which could push the total to $7 to $8 billion if the verdict holds.

On April 8, the Oregon Court of Appeals set aside the liability verdict and the judgments, saying much of the evidence concerned particular issues about particular wildfires. Survivors appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed on June 25 to hear the case. The high court can reinstate the judgments, or uphold the appeals court and return the case to Judge Alexander.

What each side argues

Lawyers for the survivors say the appeals court was wrong to focus on a single sentence in the jury instructions, and that common evidence included PacifiCorp failing to insulate power lines, trim trees and vegetation, or have any plan to shut off power in time, Reuters reported. PacifiCorp says the instruction ignored critical differences among the fires and wrongly excused victims from proving their individual claims.

No survivor in the class has received money yet, and at least 50 class members have died in the six years since the fires, the Statesman Journal reported. "The idea of starting over is really more than we could take," said Diane Turnbull, executive director of Upward Bound, a camp for disabled adults that lost all its buildings in the Santiam fire.

PacifiCorp spokesman Simon Gutierrez said the company recognizes the devastating impacts of the 2020 wildfires and continues to believe settlement is the best path forward, the Statesman Journal reported. Reuters reported the company had reached about $2.3 billion in settlements with claimants outside the class through June 30, and agreed in February to pay $575 million to resolve United States government claims over six Oregon and California wildfires. The case also reaches electric bills: PacifiCorp serves about 600,000 customers in Oregon, and state regulators denied its request for a temporary 2.8 percent rate rise earlier this year before an October 29 settlement allowing a 0.3 percent rise in 2027, the Statesman Journal reported.