Major Oregon wildfire verdict could encourage Lahaina victims to pursue civil suits

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Wildfire victims in Oregon have been awarded multi-million-dollar emotional damage verdicts — in cases similar to what happened in Lahaina.

The size of the damages could make fire victims in Hawaii hesitate to take early payouts from the recovery fund promoted by Gov. Josh Green.

Juries in civil cases are notoriously unpredictable; that’s one reason the vast majority of lawsuits are settled without getting to a jury.

But attorneys say the Oregon verdicts may help all parties in the Maui fire cases make decisions whether to go to trial, settle, or take an early payout.

Special Section: Maui Wildfires Disaster

The Oregon lawsuits stem from Labor Day 2020 when four fires fed by storm winds tore through parts of the state.

Thousands of people lost property or fled for their lives. They sued Pacific Power,

Oregon attorney Cody Berne with the Stoll Berne law firm in Portland, represented the nine victims in the most recent trial.

“Each of the nine at points thought they were going to die,” Berne said. “And many had incredibly horrifying stories of fleeing from the fires that the power company started.”

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The jury turned the horror into dollars, awarding pain and suffering, non-economic damages of $56 million for just nine people, between $4.5 million to $8.5 million each.

“The value that juries place on the sheer terror that people go through, and they don’t know if they’re going to live or die, the trauma of all the after-effects of a fire — these things are very valuable in a jury’s mind,” Berne said.

But there are significant differences.

In Oregon, Pacific Power is a very profitable investor-owned utility found severely negligent after ignoring government warnings to depower its cross-country lines.

On Maui, although Hawaiian Electric is being sued, the victims are also suing Maui County, the state and other landowners. The attorneys say a jury here might go a little easier on local companies and government agencies, to which they pay bills and taxes.

Local attorney Doug Chin is working with the Oregon attorneys representing some Hawaii victims. “Is it going to be repeated here in Hawaii? We don’t know,” Chin said. “But it’s something that we should at least be able to ask people to consider.”

That, especially in light of Green’s Maui Recover Fund, which promises early payoffs of over a million dollars each for fire deaths and injuries for victims who drop their lawsuits.

“Is this enough money?” Chin asks.

“Or, would it be better to continue on in a trial and potentially get a much higher reward?”

Whether someone takes the governor’s recovery fund offer or go stick with the legal process will depend on details of the fund that are still being worked out and how a victim they needs the money. The Oregon fire cases took over three years to reach trial and still face appeals.