Jury awards 9 survivors of 2020 Labor Day fires $85M after verdict against PacifiCorp

A Portland jury on Tuesday awarded nine survivors of Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day fires a total of $85 million in the latest court case against utility PacifiCorp.

The award came after a “mini-trial” that lasted a little more than two weeks and was the first in a series to determine compensation for roughly 5,000 fire victims impacted by four megafires that burned thousands of homes and wrought widespread damage.

PacifiCorp disputed the final figure, saying they estimated it would fall closer to $79 million following the judge's ruling on post-trial motions.  

In June of 2023, a Multnomah County jury found PacifiCorp at fault for the ignition and spread of the Santiam-Beachie, Echo Mountain, South Obenchain and 242 fires. In that first case, the jury awarded $90 million to 17 wildfire survivors.

This time around, the payout was even higher, with a jury awarding survivors an average of $6.9 million per plaintiff, compared to an average of $4.2 million last June.

The next mini-trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 26 and seeks compensation for another nine survivors of the fires, along with the Upward Bound Camp for Individuals with Special Needs in Gates. The camp operates at the old Gates School, on the site where a power line started a fire the night of Labor Day 2020.

The third damages trial is set for April 22 and would include timber companies whose land was burned in the fires.

After that series of mini trials is completed, the two sides will enter into mediation in hopes of reaching a settlement, Multnomah County judge Steffan Alexander ordered.

“We are committed to getting as much compensation as possible for Labor Day fire survivors as expeditiously as possible. Today’s powerful verdict is another important step in that direction,” Matthew Preusch, a partner at Keller Rohrback LLP, said in a statement.

PacifiCorp has objected to numerous aspects of the proceedings, both during the original trial, after the June verdict and after Tuesday’s verdict.

The company said it has filed an appeal on the “numerous issues stemming from the June 2023 court proceeding and intends to appeal this latest outcome because many of the fundamental problems with this case persist.”

The nine fire victims in this most recent mini-trial included some of the most dramatic stories to come out of the fires.

Among them was Frank King, 101, a World War II veteran and a former coastal correspondent for the Statesman Journal. King lost the home he’d lived in since 1990 when it was destroyed in the Echo Mountain Fire in the Otis area near Lincoln City.

Another plaintiff was Scott Johnson, 68, of Gates, who woke up to flames surrounding his house and escaped with his wife and their cat, Tuku, by jumping off a cliff into the North Santiam River, where they spent the night. Their house was lost in the fire.

The verdict included more than $6 million in economic and $56 million in non-economic damages. That number was increased to $85 million after the doubling of economic damages and the addition of punitive damages of 25% automatically applied given the jury’s verdict in the first phase of the case.

Given PacifiCorp’s plan for a lengthy appeals process, it’s unclear when the victims would actually get paid.

In early December, PacifiCorp agreed to pay $299 million to settle a lawsuit brought by about 220 customers who were harmed by devastating wildfires in southern Oregon in 2020. Later that month, the utility announced it has reached a $250 million settlement with ten timber companies to resolve a lawsuit they brought against the utility related to the Archie Creek Complex Fire in Southern Oregon.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 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.