Legal News

In Dismissing Katrina Lawsuit, Judge Lambastes Government

By Peter Lattman

On Wednesday, federal judge Stanwood Duval tossed a class-action lawsuit on against the Army Corps of Engineers over flooding from a New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Today, the NYT examines the opinion and the reaction of residents — many of whom blame the government for the flood.

Duval (LSU, LSU Law), a Louisiana native, said in his opinion that his hands were basically tied because the Flood Control Act of 1928 immunizes the government from legal liability in the event of failure of levees and dams. But in dicta — oh, how we love dicta — Duval said the corps was guilty of “gross incompetence.”

He went on: “While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task. This story — 50 years in the making — is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the corps’s own calculations.”

Joseph Bruno, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, applauded Judge Duval’s strong language. “You now have a U.S. federal district judge who’s had a chance to evaluate the facts and draw legal conclusions,” he told the Times. “Now you’ve got a determination where a guy says, ‘Look, but for the nuances of the statute, these people will be called on to pay.’ ”

Law Blog Encore YouTube Video of the Day: Click here for a rather moving video of photos from the 2005 storm, accompanied by a Led Zeppelin classic. “If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break . . . When The Levee Breaks I’ll have no place to stay . . .”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).