PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon appeals court sided with PacifiCorp on Wednesday in a ruling that could possibly jeopardize over $1 billion in damages for victims of the state's devastating 2020 wildfires.
The Oregon Court of Appeals sent the class-action case back to a lower trial court over concerns about a jury instruction given during a 2023 trial. In that trial, jurors found the utility liable for negligently failing to cut power despite warnings from top fire officials and determined it should have to pay punitive and other damages — a decision that applied to a class of property owners.
Since then, other juries have ordered PacifiCorp to pay over $1 billion in damages to a class that includes thousands of members.
In the ruling, a three-judge appellate panel found that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it could assume that the evidence presented at trial regarding four different wildfires applied to all class members.
“We conclude that ... that instruction was legally erroneous, because certain evidence at trial, particularly related to causation, did not necessarily apply to every class member,” the judges wrote. “We further conclude that giving the instruction was prejudicial to PacifiCorp. Consequently, we reverse and remand.”
The judges noted that members of the class included the owners of over 2,000 parcels of property damaged by the different fires, “certain of which were separated by well over a hundred miles.” The blazes included the Santiam Canyon fire in northwestern Oregon; the Echo Mountain Complex fire near the coast; and the South Obenchain and 242 fires in southwestern Oregon.
The 2020 Labor Day weekend fires were among the worst natural disasters in Oregon’s history. They killed 11 people, burned more than 1,560 square miles (4,040 square kilometers) and destroyed thousands of homes.
It remained unclear how the case would move forward and whether attorneys for the plaintiffs would appeal the decision to the state supreme court. More than 1,000 class members have cases set for trial in 2026 and 2027.
"There are no winners in wildfire; however, the Court’s decision supports PacifiCorp’s longstanding belief that this process was prejudicial and not appropriate for managing wildfire litigation," the utility said in a statement. "The company remains open to resolving reasonable claims and will continue to defend against unsupported claims."
In a statement, lead counsel for the plaintiffs said the decision was a “procedural setback” and that “nothing in this ruling suggests the jury got it wrong.”
“In fact, the Court rejected PacifiCorp’s efforts to win this appeal on the merits. Instead, what the court addressed was a single jury instruction, charting several paths forward — including fixing that instruction and trying the case again.”
Separately, PacifiCorp has agreed to pay over $2 billion to settle claims stemming from a series of lawsuits it has faced over the 2020 blazes, including $575 million to the federal government for wildfire damages on federal land in Oregon and California.
In February, PacifiCorp announced plans to sell its wind, natural gas generation and distribution assets and infrastructure in Washington state to Portland General Electric Company for $1.9 billion to help stabilize its finances. Even though it is appealing wildfire judgments against it, PacifiCorp has had to post bonds with the court, which has put a crunch on its cash flow.
FILE - Chairs stand at a post office in the aftermath of the Santiam Fire in Gates, Ore., Sept 9, 2020. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP, File)
