Wineries Seek $100 Million in Damages From PacifiCorp in Lawsuit Accusing the Company of Negligence Leading to Wildfires

A U.S. postal delivery vehicle drives past a smoke-shrouded vineyard in Salem, Ore., on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020. (Photo: Andrew Selsky/AP Photos)

Forty vineyards and wineries are suing Warren Buffet’s PacifiCorp energy company for its alleged negligence in a string of deadly 2020 wildfires. In the latest of dozens of suits filed by Oregonians, winemakers claim that smoke damage irreparably tainted a year’s worth of harvests and sales.

The claim revolves around allegations that PacifiCorp failed to turn off power during a Labor Day windstorm despite warnings from authorities. The decision has since been linked to wildfires — described as one of the worst natural disasters in Oregon history — that resulted in the deaths of at least eleven and the destruction of over 5,000 homes.

In a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court last week, winemakers joined forces to demand $100 million in damages from the energy company. The filing claims that vintners were unable to sell grapes and wine after smoke permeated the entirety of the 2020 vintage. Zenith Vineyard co-owner Tim Ramey remarked that the year’s wines “might taste like an ashtray.”

“Grapes and grape juice that are infused with smoke can carry the smoke compounds and smoke taste through the entire wine production, bottling process, and sale to the consumers,” the filing read, according to The Associated Press.

In a statement shared with The Associated Press, PacifiCorp said it is “committed to settling all reasonable claims for damages as provided under Oregon law.”

Elsewhere in the state, the energy company is embroiled in separate lawsuits filed by Brigadoon Vineyards, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Elk Cove Vineyards. In an unsuccessful petition to have the Brigadoon case dismissed, PacifiCorp wrote the following in August:

“Even setting aside the obvious factual problem of proving that any smoke damage to Plaintiff’s grapes resulted from PacifiCorp equipment dozens or even hundreds of miles away rather than from any of the other dozen or more wildfires burning over Labor Day weekend 2020—a problem that pervades every claim in this case—Plaintiff’s claims fail, as pleaded, as a matter of law.”

Winemakers are not to only ones going to court against the energy giant. As of April, PacifiCorp faces at least $30 billion in suits claiming gross negligence, property damage and emotional distress.

While the vast majority are still being fought in court, some have begun showing payouts to victims. In December, the energy company agreed to pay $299 million in a lawsuit brought by 463 plaintiffs in southern Oregon. In total, PacifiCrop is estimated to have paid $735 million so far across dozens of different cases.

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