Berkshire Hathaway's utility subsidiary PacifiCorp won a significant legal victory in April when an Oregon appeals court reversed a landmark class action verdict, but the ruling leaves its total wildfire liability exposure unresolved and potentially restructured in ways that complicate its long-term risk profile for for a conglomerate that sits on both side of the wildfire risk spectrum through lectric utilities and insurance.
Berkshire's cumulative accrual for all wildfire-related probable losses reached $2.9 billion through March 31, 2026, according to first quarter earnings released today. PacifiCorp paid $584 million in settlements in Q1 2026 alone, bringing total payments to approximately $2.3 billion across roughly 4,600 claimants.
PacifiCorp separately agreed in February to pay $575 million to resolve U.S. government claims related to six wildfires that burned federal land. Estimated unpaid liabilities stand at $577 million at quarter-end, down from $1.2 billion at year-end 2025. Berkshire was explicit in its 10-Q that it cannot reasonably estimate a specific range of additional exposure given the number of parties, property types and unresolved legal outcomes involved.
On April 8, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the Phase I liability verdict in the James class action, finding that the trial court erred in instructing jurors they could assume evidence presented at trial applied uniformly to all class members.
According to Reuters, the three-judge panel found that much of the evidence concerned particular issues concerning particular wildfires, meaning jurors could not simply assume it applied to all class members. The court awarded costs to PacifiCorp as the prevailing party.
The James litigation centers on four wildfires (the Santiam Canyon, Echo Mountain Complex, South Obenchain and 242 fires ) that burned more than 240,000 acres across Oregon during a Labor Day weekend windstorm in September 2020. PacifiCorp has denied that its power lines caused the fires, though federal and state investigations produced mixed findings. An Oregon Department of Forestry report determined that PacifiCorp's lines did not contribute to the overall spread of fire into the Santiam Canyon, a finding RMN reported in August 2025 as providing crucial exculpatory context even as litigation intensified.
The appellate reversal does not close the exposure.
Plaintiffs' attorney Jay Edelson called the ruling a procedural setback that did not address the merits of his clients' negligence claims, adding that PacifiCorp would not escape having to answer to wildfire survivors, accordion to the Reuters report. Either party has 35 days from the April 8 opinion to petition the Oregon Supreme Court for review.
For the risk markets, the more consequential question is what the reversal does to the litigation architecture.
By overturning the class-wide jury instruction, the appeals court signaled that individual causation and damages findings may be required plaintiff by plaintiff , potentially disaggregating a consolidated class into hundreds of separate proceedings. The class actions allow greater recoveries at lower cost than individual suits, meaning decertification would structurally reduce plaintiff leverage, Reuter says. The Multnomah County Circuit Court has been directed to reconsider class certification on remand, with a May 22 hearing scheduled to address the scope and duration of a stay on remaining Phase II trials.
The scale of what remains pending is significant.
From April 2024 through January 2026, 1,760 James class members filed nine mass damages complaints seeking $5 million in economic damages and $25 million in noneconomic damages per individual plaintiff, plus punitive damages. Total net damages awarded across 201 plaintiffs in Phase II trials reached approximately $1.25 billion before the reversal.
S&P warned last month it may downgrade PacifiCorp to junk status if future jury awards remained high.
