A Multnomah County jury has awarded about $50 million to 10 survivors of Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day wildfires, the latest in a growing series of verdicts against electric company PacifiCorp.
The Portland-based utility has now been ordered to pay more than $385 million to individual plaintiffs following a 2023 class-action ruling that found it liable for negligently causing four major wildfires by failing to shut off power during extreme fire conditions.
The verdict Wednesday included damages for Wanda and Bill Ford, both in their 80s, who lost their Otis-area home to the Echo Mountain fire and spent years living in motels, a spokesperson for the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in an email. Others lost family cabins, timberland, personal belongings and the ashes of loved ones.
“When juries hear what PacifiCorp’s fires have done to people — destroying their homes, displacing them for months or years, saddling them with trauma — they return verdicts that provide justice,” one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Matthew Preusch, said in a statement Wednesday.
PacificCorp said in a statement that it has settled more than 2,000 wildfire-related claims since 2020.
“These settlements were the result of negotiations culminating in meaningful compensation to help those affected by the fires recover, rebuild, and move forward,” Gutierrez said, adding that the company “remains committed to settling all reasonable claims.”
The company appealed the 2023 ruling in April. At least five more jury trials are scheduled this year.
- The Oregonian/OregonLive
Comment Policy