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PacifiCorp’s court victory could save more than $1 billion in wildfire damage
This week’s ruling from the Oregon Court of Appeals accepted PacifiCorp’s argument that the judge in its 2023 trial incorrectly told jurors that the evidence they heard about wildfire damage sustained by 17 homeowners could be considered applicable to thousands of other plaintiffs.
Appellate judges sent the so-called James class action lawsuit back to the trial court for reconsideration.
A jury in 2023 found a Berkshire power company liable for failing to shut down power lines during a powerful storm and starting four separate wildfires that caused significant property damage.
The court said the liability judgment applied not only to the 17 plaintiffs in that case, but also to all other plaintiffs.
NASA MODIS satellite image shows wildfires in Oregon, USA, on September 8, 2020. Photo taken on September 8, 2020.
Maxar Technologies | via Reuters
In a subsequent “mini-trial” to determine how much PacifiCorp should pay the plaintiffs, another jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $1 billion in damages.
Such trials were expected to continue for several years, but
Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit may have to start over to prove the company is liable for specific damages, but this week’s ruling could be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The appellate judges noted that this category includes owners of more than 2,000 properties damaged by various fires more than 100 miles apart.
According to the Associated Press, a statement from the plaintiffs’ lead attorney did not imply that “the jury was wrong” in finding PacifiCorp liable, calling the decision a “procedural setback.”
“In fact, the court rejected PacifiCorp’s efforts to win this appeal on the merits. Instead, the court addressed a single instruction to the jury that set out several possible paths forward, including amending those instructions and retrying the case.”
“We are sensitive to the significant loss experienced by members of our community. There are no winners in wildfires. However, the court’s decision confirms PacifiCorp’s long-held belief that this process is prejudicial and inappropriate for managing wildfire litigation,” PacifiCorp said in a news release.
The utility said it is “ready to resolve reasonable claims and will continue to defend against unsubstantiated claims.”
Berkshire Subsidiary Must Face Class Action Lawsuit Due to Real Estate Fees
Reuters reports that Berkshire Hathaway Energy is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that broker HomeServices of America conspired to raise real estate commissions even though the company paid $250 million to settle similar claims two years ago.
A federal judge in Missouri has ruled against BHE’s argument that it is subject to the HomeServices settlement because the two companies are “one entity” when it comes to antitrust litigation.
Buffett won’t appear on stage, but will still appear on the cover.
The cover of Berkshire Hathaway’s “Shareholder Guide” for its 2026 annual meeting on May 2 features pictures of both Chairman Warren Buffett and CEO Greg Abel.
Mr. Buffett will be prominent on the badges worn by guides and shareholders (as noted in a brief news report by Omaha’s WOWT-TV), but he will cede the spotlight to Mr. Abel during the Q&A session.
As relayed by CNBC’s Becky Quick, Buffett said he and his fellow board members will be on the floor at Omaha’s CHI Health Center Arena while Abel answers shareholder questions.
Mr. Abel will be joined by Ajit Jain, Head of Insurance, for the first Q&A session.
BNSF CEO Katie Farmer and Adam Johnson, CEO of NetJets and president of Consumer Products, Services and Retail at Berkshire (a new role), will join Abel for a second Q&A.
This will be the first time that subsidiary-level executives will participate in the Q&A session at the annual general meeting.
The crowd reacts during the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 3, 2025.
CNBC
Berkshire’s next chapter added to Buffett’s book
A book that explores Berkshire Hathaway through the eyes of the people running its subsidiaries has received an update, including the company’s transition from Warren Buffett to new CEO Greg Abel.
“Warren Buffett CEO: Berkshire Hathaway Management Secrets 25th Anniversary Edition” will be published by Wiley Publishing on April 28th.
Author Robert P. Miles also added four new chapters focused on Berkshire’s “insurance engine,” including profiles of three key executives, including Ajit Jain’s potential successor.
In January, Miles posted a video discussing the book in front of a gathering of investment managers in Switzerland, including one with portfolio manager Ted Weschler.
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
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CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
“The economic equation at Berkshire is not that complicated” (2016)
Warren Buffett: The economic equation at Berkshire is not that complicated.
People didn’t, and for a long time they didn’t understand the value of floats. We continued to explain it to them and I think we probably still do.
The big thing, the goal, what Charlie and I think about, is we want to add something to the normalized earnings power per share of the normalized company every year.
And we think we can do it because we should be able to do it. We have the internal reserves to work year after year to get that job done.
Sometimes it seems like we don’t accomplish much, or even much.
And in other years, something big will happen, but we do not know in advance which year it will be…
Charlie Munger: Well, very few companies have benefited in the same way.
Throughout Berkshire Hathaway’s history, we have lived in a torrent of money. And we’ve always been deploying it, spending assets, and getting smarter as we go along. It’s a pretty good system.
Warren Buffett: That’s–
Charlie Munger: We’re not going to change that.
Warren Buffett: No, we can tolerate a lot of mistakes. I mean, that’s what’s interesting.
American business is doing well enough that we don’t need to do that. You don’t have to be really smart to get decent results. And if you bring a little bit of intelligence to the table, you should be able to get pretty good results.
Charlie Munger: All you have to do is hate standard stupidity. You just eliminate them. You don’t have to be smart.
Warren Buffett: Thank God.
Charlie Munger: Thank God, yeah.
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $720,002.88
BRK.B stock price: $479.90
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 15.47
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,035,160,682,901
Berkshire Cash as of December 31: $373.3 billion (down 2.2% from September 30)
Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $369 billion (4.1% increase from September 30)
Berkshire resumed stock buybacks on March 4, 2026, but has not disclosed whether it has made additional purchases since then.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – April 10, 2026
Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s November 14, 2025 13F filing. However, the following cases are excluded.
A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Question or comment
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)
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I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
