Berkshire Utility Presses Wildfire Appeal With Billions at Stake

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp is asking an appeals court to throw out a 2023 jury verdict in a wildfire class-action case that has exposed the company to billions of dollars in losses.

PacifiCorp, which calls itself the largest grid operator in the western US, has been under mounting pressure after being blamed for igniting a series of wildfires that devastated Oregon in September 2020. In the first major wildfire case against a utility to go to a trial, the company was found grossly negligent for failing to shut off electricity in its service areas ahead of dangerously dry and ...