Berkshire Utility Presses Wildfire Appeal With Billions at Stake

(Bloomberg) — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp is asking an appeals court to hold a jury verdict in 2023 in a wildfire class-action lawsuit that has exposed the company to billions of dollars in damages.

PacifiCorp, which calls itself the largest grid operator in the Western U.S., has been under increasing pressure after being accused of triggering a series of wildfires that devastated Oregon in September 2020. In the first major wildfire lawsuit filed against a utility, the company was found to be grossly negligent for failing to shut off power to its service areas ahead of dangerously dry and windy weather.

The $645 million award to 119 victims and the possibility that damages could ultimately exceed 10 times that amount rattled PacifiCorp bondholders, boosted the company’s credit rating and led to a warning last year that the utility might have to shut down operations in Oregon.

PacifiCorp’s lawyers are scheduled to present arguments to the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday. They are asking a three-judge panel to rule that the case should not proceed as a class action on behalf of thousands of individual fire victims. The utility argued in court cases that the group improperly brought together property owners affected by different wildfires in remote areas.

Victims’ attorneys countered that the trial judge correctly determined that PacifiCorp’s liability could be resolved using joint evidence, despite differences in individual victims’ property losses.

PacifiCorp also argues that Oregon law prohibits plaintiffs from recovering non-economic damages for property losses resulting from wildfire. But plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the jury should award an average of $4 million in damages per victim, as legally allowed, for emotional distress.

The company faces an expedited schedule to address claims from about 1,400 fire victims remaining in a class-action lawsuit that will be resolved this year and next. A decision from the appeals court is expected within six months to a year.

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