By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -An Oregon jury on Wednesday said PacifiCorp, an electric utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, must pay punitive damages for four of the wildfires that devastated the state in 2020.
The verdict could result in PacifiCorp being liable for billions of dollars of damages to approximately 5,000 plaintiffs who said the fires damaged more than 2,400 properties.
Jurors in Multnomah County Circuit Court reached their conclusion two days after finding that Portland-based PacifiCorp owed more than $70 million of compensatory damages to 17 property owners for its negligence.
The plaintiffs accused PacifiCorp of improperly failing to shut down power lines during a Labor Day windstorm, despite warnings of potential hurricane strength gusts, and that some of its lines set off fires.
Wildfires throughout Oregon in 2020 burned approximately 1,900 square miles (1.22 million acres), destroying an estimated 5,000 or more structures and killing at least nine people. Jurors set punitive damages at 25% of compensatory damages, meaning the first 17 plaintiffs would receive at least $87 million, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
The lawyers expect part of the payout to be doubled under Oregon law, and said the jury’s decision on liability and punitive damages would apply to the thousands of other plaintiffs, whose damages will be determined later.
PacifiCorp plans to appeal the verdict and damages, but said the 25% multiplier for punitive damages “significantly reduces our financial exposure.”
Nick Rosinia, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in a statement said that after years of PacifiCorp refusing to accept responsibility for the fires, “the time for denial and delay is over.”
The utility had said power shutoffs were not necessary based on what it knew, and the plaintiffs did not prove its equipment was to blame. Acquired for $5.1 billion in 2006, PacifiCorp is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which is 92% owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Lincoln Feast.)
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