The Oregon Court of Appeals will also weigh whether to allow a judge who previously represented PacifiCorp to stay on the case.
A long-running PacifiCorp wildfire lawsuit is heading to Oregon’s highest court.
The Oregon Supreme Court has agreed to review a class-action lawsuit over PacifiCorp’s role in four wildfires that burned over the 2020 Labor Day weekend.
It’s among the most closely watched cases questioning whether — and how — to hold electric utilities accountable when their equipment sparks catastrophic wildfires. It’s also testing the use of class-action lawsuits to resolve hundreds of wildfire claims across different regions.
The state Supreme Court could ultimately decide whether PacifiCorp, the parent company of Pacific Power, will have to move forward with paying more than $2.2 billion in damages to about 2,000 people — or if litigation needs to restart entirely.
In 2023, a jury determined that PacifiCorp caused a substantial amount of damage related to fires in the Santiam Canyon, as well as fires near Chiloquin, Lincoln City and Eagle Point.
Earlier this year, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the jury’s verdict based on a procedural flaw, upending six years of litigation and potentially jeopardizing wildfire survivors’ payments. The decision came from a three-judge panel led by Anna Joyce, who had represented PacifiCorp in lawsuits before she joined the judiciary. Joyce had not disclosed her past private-practice experience working with PacifiCorp.
Attorneys representing wildfire survivors asked the Oregon Supreme Court to reconsider the judicial panel’s decision. Last week, that court agreed to take up the case on an expedited schedule. Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov. 3.
“The thousands of Oregonians whose homes PacifiCorp burned are grateful that the Oregon Supreme Court will hear their case quickly,” wildfire victims’ attorneys said in a statement.
The court’s decision could ultimately determine if the wildfire victims can continue trials calculating PacifiCorp’s liability damages.
“We remain confident that the Court of Appeals’ decision, grounded in sound legal principles, will stand,” a PacifiCorp spokesperson said in a statement. “In the meantime, we will continue to assert our position vigorously and underscore the strong legal and factual foundations supporting that decision.”
Wildfire survivors’ attorneys also requested the Oregon Court of Appeals to disqualify Joyce from participating in this case further. They argued that her past representation of PacifiCorp, combined with her authorship of an opinion favorable to the company without disclosing those ties, created an appearance of bias.
“This should never have happened, and this Motion should never have been necessary,” they wrote to the court.
Joyce declined to voluntarily recuse herself from the case, referring instead to the Court of Appeals. She argued that she had represented PacifiCorp in two unrelated cases, one of which “overlapped for a brief time with the wildfire litigation,” and that her payments from that job ended in 2022.
“I have no personal or financial interest in the litigation,” Joyce wrote to the court.
Joyce argued that attorneys often have experience working for multiple clients across different industries before they become judges. Disqualifying herself from this case, Joyce wrote, would throw her integrity into question.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
