Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
Twenty-one survivors of the 2020 Labor Day fires have been randomly chosen for an initial round of damages trials next year in a class action lawsuit against PacifiCorp.
On Wednesday afternoon, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Steffan Alexander signed an order defining procedures and deadlines for nine upcoming trials in James et al vs. PacifiCorp.
The order named seven randomly-selected individuals for each of the first three trials, scheduled for Feb. 3, March 24 and April 21, 2025.
Survivors of the Santiam Fire chosen for the trials include:
- Feb. 3, 2025: Fawn Weaver and Misti Rooney.
- March 24, 2025: Michele Lowry Pfohl, Junina Stinson and Richard Braham.
- April 21, 2025: Jackson Hall, Jacob Jensen, Shannon Shinn, the Estate of Darrell Huber, the Estate of Elaine Tinney, and the Estate of Mona Rumplik.
The class also includes survivors of the Echo Mountain Complex, South Obenchain and 242 fires.
An additional three plaintiffs for each trial will be chosen by lead counsel to accommodate “need-based plaintiffs.” Alexander defined these plaintiffs as class members who are 70 or older or who suffer from a medical condition that may impede their ability to participate in a later trial.
Lead counsel have until Monday to name need-based plaintiffs for the first three trials.
Six additional trials are also scheduled throughout next year and will follow the same format of seven randomly-selected plaintiffs and three need-based plaintiffs chosen by lead counsel. Plaintiffs in both categories will be chosen among those who have filed short-form complaints with the court.
The order set a deadline of Nov. 1 for the selection of plaintiffs for trials on May 12, June 2 and July 7, 2025, and a deadline of Feb. 28, 2025, for trials on Sept. 8, Oct. 6 and Dec. 1, 2025.
The order also said, if any minors are randomly chosen for trials, they would not be included and a different plaintiff would be chosen. Lead counsel had requested this in a Sept. 5 proposal which said trying the claims of children presents certain complications in court and in the personal lives of families.
The 2025 trial scheduled was approved Aug. 30 after settlement talks between plaintiffs and PacifiCorp broke down May 27.
PacifiCorp was found liable for the fires by a jury in 2023 through gross negligence and willful misconduct. Damages proceedings have since resulted in $212 million awarded to 36 plaintiffs, and currently 1,536 individual claims for damages are pending.
PacifiCorp denies wrongdoing and has appealed the plaintiffs’ awards.
Alexander said Aug. 30 his goal for the 2025 trials was for both parties to use the outcomes as standards for continued mediation. His order Wednesday set deadlines to resume class-wide mediation including 10 days after the verdict of the April trial and 30 days after the verdicts for the trials next July and December.
If by Aug. 15, 2025, additional trials seem necessary, Alexander’s order said future trials for 2026 would be scheduled that day.
Alexander’s order denied proposals by PacifiCorp to lump plaintiffs’ claims by household during the trials and to split plaintiffs into subcategories based on damages.
The company had proposed in a Sept. 5 filing that claims from members of the same household be heard during the same trial, and damages awarded to a single household representative.
PacifiCorp said this would reduce duplications of effort and prevent overlapping claims between household members from being argued during different trials. The company also said this strategy would avoid “inflated damages,” which it defined as noneconomic damages likely to be awarded at higher rates to individuals than to a group of claimants.
The company also proposed splitting fire survivors into two categories based on their damages, between those with total losses and those with partial or minor losses. It said plaintiffs for the trials could be randomly selected from both categories to ensure juries saw a fair representation of the broad degree of damages among the class.
Plaintiffs argued in their Sept. 5 proposal that trying claims individually rather than by households would conform with two prior damages trials held in January and February. They said trying individual claims would ensure a greater number of families receive relief from the fires, and that keeping each trial to 10 individuals would ensure they are adjudicated within the time and resources set aside by the court.
Alexander’s order Wednesday said PacifiCorp’s proposed selection process was denied based on plaintiff’s arguments.
