Legal News

Trial Set for Army Corp of Engineers Over Katrina Liability

By Dionne Searcey

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina there was plenty of blame to go around for how such a disaster could have unfolded in a metropolitan area in a first-world country. Earlier today a federal judge paved the way for one group of plaintiffs to pin the cause of the flooding that devastated much of New Orleans in 2005–if not the chaotic evacuation and response–on the Army Corps of Engineers.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval tossed out the Corps' argument that it can't be sued for the flooding and paved the way for a trial, scheduled for April 20. Here’s his ruling.

Six flood victims are trying to blame the Corps for failing to maintain the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a channel that could have helped drain the toxic gumbo, as the newscasters called it, that submerged New Orleans after the hurricane.

The plaintiffs claim that for a half century experts, environmentalists and a bevy of government officials warned the Army Corps that the channel was a "Hurricane Highway" that would cause catastrophic flooding to the heart of metropolitan New Orleans. The six plaintiffs are being represented by Pierce O'Donnell. (He’s the L.A. trial lawyer who's been called Hollywood's Perry Mason and who pleaded not guilty to charges that he offered reimbursements to donors to the campaign of a presidential candidate believed to be John Edwards. Here’s our previous blog post.)

The Corps argued unsuccessfully that federal law gave it immunity from the suit. It contends it did maintain the channel.

Lawyers for other flooding victims are keeping their eye on the case as it could bring compensation for the plaintiffs whose homes and businesses in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish were turned to mush by Katrina.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).