State Ex Rel. Department of Forestry v. Jepson & Sons Logging Co.

This is an action at law by which the State of Oregon seeks damages for costs incurred in suppressing a forest fire. Defendants were engaged in a logging operation, and the fire originated at the location of a slash burn conducted by defendants several weeks earlier. When the fire escaped defendants’ control, the state supplied men, equipment and materials to combat it. The state claimed that defendants failed to assert every reasonable effort to control and extinguish the fire and that they were therefore liable to the state pursuant to ORS 477.066 and ORS 477.068. The state also alleged…