PacifiCorp has won a notable victory in a lawsuit tying it to four major wildfires that burned in Oregon over the 2020 Labor Day weekend.

Wednesday’s Oregon Court of Appeals decision could pause more than 160 damages trials that are scheduled through 2027. It could also send some wildfire survivors back to court.

The opinion issued by a three-judge panel highlighted a procedural flaw in the 2023 class action lawsuit brought by 16 Oregonians who were harmed by four different wildfires.

The judge in that 2023 lawsuit found that thousands of people, beyond those 16 original plaintiffs, could bring additional claims against PacifiCorp. People harmed by those four wildfires have since been grouped into separate trials to calculate damage awards.

PacifiCorp executives celebrated the opinion.

“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,” they said in a statement. “The company remains open to resolving reasonable claims and will continue to defend against unsupported claims.”

Attorneys for the wildfire survivors characterized the court’s decision as a “procedural setback.”

“The Oregon Court of Appeals didn’t say PacifiCorp didn’t start these fires,” lead counsel said in a statement. “It didn’t say PacifiCorp wasn’t negligent. It didn’t say our clients weren’t harmed. A jury found all of that, and nothing in this ruling suggests the jury got it wrong.”

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PacifiCorp is owned by the $1-trillion corporation Berkshire Hathaway. It also owns Pacific Power, Oregon’s second-largest electrical utility.

Over the 2020 Labor Day weekend, PacifiCorp managers left electrical lines charged despite forecast hurricane-force winds, resulting in downed live wires in wooded areas. More than 2,000 fires burned across Oregon that weekend, destroying more than 3,000 buildings and killing 11 people.

Wednesday’s appeals court opinion, authored by panel member Judge Anna Joyce, concludes that the jury in the 2023 case received bad instructions. Jury members were told they could “assume that the evidence in the trial applies to all class members.”

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But the lawsuit included people harmed by four different wildfires in different parts of the state: the 242 Fire near Chiloquin, the Echo Mountain Complex Fire near Lincoln City, the South Obenchain Fire near Eagle Point, and the Santiam Canyon Fire in Marion County.

Attorneys representing wildfire survivors presented similar evidence tying PacifiCorp to the first three wildfires, but they didn’t have a “single, unified theory of causation” for the Santiam Canyon Fire, Joyce said.

The Santiam Canyon Fire burned 45,660 acres and destroyed about 1,500 buildings.

While it burned through the towns of Detroit and Gates, the Beachie Creek Fire, sparked by lightning, burned nearby. Attorneys on both sides disagree over whether some of the canyon fires were caused by PacifiCorp’s equipment, or embers from the Beachie Creek Fire.

In the class action lawsuit, wildfire attorneys presented evidence tying PacifiCorp to multiple fires in the canyon. They also argued that those fires forced firefighters to evacuate the area.

It’s unclear what happens next in this lawsuit. The 15 trials that have already determined damages might go back to court, and the trials scheduled through 2027 could be put on hold. The case also could get kicked up to the Oregon Supreme Court.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/08/pacificorp-wins-victory-oregon-wildfire-lawsuit/