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$700,000 Katrina Payout Opens the Floodgate for Billions of Dollars
$700,000 seems like a paltry amount but it is the first victory for Katrina victims?.opening the ?floodgate? for a class action lawsuit that could reap tens of billions in federal bucks.
Four years after the hurricane ravaged New Orleans, while the rest of the country watched in shock, Judge Stanwood Duval has ruled that our federal government was indeed to blame for the flooding.
According to NewScientist, Judge Duval awarded the money to four plaintiffs who lived or had a business in or near the shipping channel known as Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), aptly called ?Hurricane Highway.?
On November 18, Duval deemed the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) negligent in maintenance and operation of MRGO. The result ?doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its design width.? Its banks were devastated while ravaging waves attributed to destructive flooding in St Bernard parish and the lower Ninth ward. ?Ignoring safety and poor engineering are not policy, and clearly the Corps engaged in such activities,? Duval stated.
The government is granted immunity if a flood control structure fails at what it is meant to do. But apparently, the same does not apply when USACE builds a navigational channel that helps demolish a flood-control structure and surrounding district.
The agency has almost two months to decide whether to appeal, which would delay the class action suit and possibly even send the case to the Supreme Court. ?There?s been no determination as yet as to what the government?s next step will be,? said Charlie Miller, a spokesman for the US Department of Justice, which is representing the corps.
However, Pierce O?Donnell, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said, ?We are overjoyed with the victory but resigned to the fact that we might have to continue the litigation for years. It?s a case of slow-motion justice.?
Landmark Ruling - Judge finds Army Corps of Engineers' negligent in maintaining and operating the MRGO
On November 18, 2009, Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, issued a landmark ruling finding the Army Corps of Engineers' negligent failure to maintain and operate the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) properly was a substantial cause for the fatal breaching of the Reach 2 Levee and the subsequent catastrophic flooding of the St. Bernard Polder. If Judge Duval's ruling is upheld on appeal, thousands of individuals and entities whose property was damaged or destroyed, or who suffered personal injury, in St. Bernard Polder and the Lower 9th Ward, could be eligible for compensation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, together with Becnel Law Firm, L.L.C, Salas, L.C. and Lambert and Nelson, P.L.C., is investigating claims on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims who sustained property damage because of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' failure to maintain MRGO. If you live in one of the Louisiana zip codes 70129, 70117, 70092, 70085, 70075, 70043, or 70032 and filed a SF Form 95 on or before Aug. 29, 2007, and have not retained an attorney, please contact our office today by visiting www.yourlawyer.com. Free case evaluations are also available by calling 1 800 LAW INFO (1-800-529-4636).
Katrina Victims - We're Here to Help!
On June 1, 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility for the flooding in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina. A 6,000 page-plus report on the tragedy, prepared by the 150-member Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force assembled and headed by the Corps, said the flooding was a result of failed levees which were built in a disjointed fashion using outdated methods. The report concluded that the levees were inconsistent in quality, materials and design and that the inconsistencies left gaps that were exploited by the storm. Engineers did not take into account the poor soil quality underneath New Orleans, the report said, and their failure to account for the sinking of land caused some sections to be as much as two feet lower than other parts. The report also blamed four breaches in canals that run through New Orleans on foundation failures that were not considered in the original design of these structures. These breaches caused two-thirds of the flooding in New Orleans.
This report followed a critical report by the Independent Levee Investigation Team which was made up of experts from the University of California at Berkeley. These investigators concluded that the devastation Katrina inflicted on New Orleans was caused by the failure of the system, calling it “unfinished” and “impotent.” The group said that floodwalls failed because they weren't built safely enough to begin with, and that some levees washed away, not because they were first overpowered by a storm surge, but because they were improperly built of sandy soils that the powerful storm surge ate through before overtopping occurred. The group was highly critical of the Army Corps of Engineers, calling them “dysfunctional” and “unreliable.” The team stated, " New Orleans flooded not so much because there was a hurricane, but because of human error, poor decisions and judgments, and failed policies.”
Victim of Defective Levee Design? We Can Help You
- You or a loved one was injured as a result of Katrina flooding
- Your property was lost or damaged as a result of Katrina flooding
- You lost permanently or temporarily lost employment as a result of Katrina flooding
- You incurred moving costs and other relocation fees as a result of Katrina flooding.