Environmental & Energy
Feb. 9, 2024
Inverse condemnation action to proceed against utility
“In a bizarre reversal of the California Takings Clause’s command that ‘private property may be taken or damaged for a public use’ only when just compensation had been paid, here a public entity seeks compensation from a private defendant for damage to public property,” attorneys for the PacifiCorp utility argued.
An inverse condemnation action against PacifiCorp related to the 2020 Slater wildfire that burned nearly 160,000 acres and destroyed over 700 structures should proceed, a U.S. magistrate judge recommended.
Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes in Sacramento found that the public utility functions enough like a government entity for inverse condemnation to apply, potentially impacting a number of similar claims related to California wildfires. Th...
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