By ZACH URNESS/Salem Statesman-Journal
PacifiCorp reached a $178 million settlement with 403 victims of the 2020 Labor Day fires, the company announced this week, while hitting an impasse with thousands of others.
Oregon’s second-largest utility will pay an average of $442,000 per person to a group that mostly includes victims of the Echo Mountain Fire, which burned in Otis east of Lincoln City, along with a few impacted by the Santiam Canyon Fire.
“We are pleased to resolve these claims to provide plaintiffs with some closure,” said Ryan Flynn, PacifiCorp’s president. “The process that led to this settlement represents the fairest and most efficient way to resolve wildfire litigation.”
PacifiCorp has settled cases for hundreds of millions of dollars over its power lines igniting some of the largest and most damaging of the Labor Day fires. It settled for $299 million with victims of southern Oregon’s Archie Creek Fire, along with timber companies, including Freres Timber Co. in the Santiam Canyon for an undisclosed sum. It also has settled lawsuits brought by insurance companies and growers of wine grapes.
It remains in a protracted battle with the largest block of wildfire victims in a class action lawsuit.
The settlement covers a group that largely chose to opt-out of a larger class action lawsuit.
After the Labor Day fires in 2020, a flurry of lawsuits were filed against PacifiCorp over claims its power lines ignited blazes that burned thousands of acres of forest and destroyed hundreds of homes.
Many of the lawsuits were eventually consolidated into one — James v. PacifiCorp. It includes an estimated 2,500 properties and 5,000 victims impacted by the South Obenchain, Echo Mountain, 242 and Santiam Canyon fires.
Before the trial started, fire victims were given the chance to opt out of the class action trial and proceed with a different lawsuit. Many of those were the 403 included in the settlement announced Monday.
While the settlement group is being paid now, the group fighting PacifiCorp in court has received far larger awards from juries in multiple trials.
Juries have found PacifiCorp negligent and grossly negligent in a primary trial — that finished last June — and in multiple “mini trials” that have taken place since.
Juries have awarded fire victims $6 million to $7 million per person, among 36 fire victims in the trials, for a total of around $220 million.
PacifiCorp has promised to appeal the jury verdicts and the lawsuit itself shows little signs of wrapping up.
Most recently, the two sides engaged in forced mediation and were unable to come up with a settlement.
That has left thousands of fire victims in legal limbo and potentially years before they see any award.
Lawyers exchange barbs
PacifiCorp has done little to hide its frustration with the class action trial and verdicts. In a Monday statement, Flynn reenforced the company’s displeasure with the ongoing trial.
“Class litigation is costly, complex, takes several years to run its course through the legal system,” Flynn said, adding trials like James are “a barrier to reasonable outcomes for impacted individuals whose personal experiences vary dramatically.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for the plaintiffs in James condemned PacifiCorp for seeking to avoid paying what juries have awarded.
“Many (fire victims) remain displaced, after having lost everything,” plaintiffs lawyers wrote. “Others are elderly or are facing life-threatening ailments. Still others have died since the fires, leaving only their estate to pursue justice against PacifiCorp.”
- Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.