Stunning ruling: U.S. government is liable for Katrina flooding, judge says

Stunning ruling: U.S. government is liable for Katrina flooding, judge says

The judge ruled that under the Fifth Amendment, the flooding amounted to a taking of property without adequate compensation due to the fact that the flooding was caused by levees maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failing.

A judge has ruled that the federal government is responsible from some of the catastrophic flooding that wrecked the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a major development in a lawsuit that has dragged on for nearly a decade.

Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., said the flooding falls under the Fifth Amendment and the “taking” of property, and therefore the plaintiffs in the lawsuit should be awarded damages — although it’s still yet to be determined what kind of damages they can expect.

Braden will attempt to have a mediator to come to some sort of assessment of damages, which will take place in a conference next Wednesday in New Orleans.

The beneficiaries are also up in the air, as although there are just a few plaintiffs, a class-action lawsuit could lead to a vast increase in the number of people who would receive damages.

The lawsuit was filed all the way back in October 2005, just months after Katrina ravaged the city. The government of St. Bernard Parish filed the suit against property owners, the central issue of which was a navigation canal that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built that many believe resulted in most of the flooding of St. Bernard and the Lower 9th district of New Orleans, which were hit hardest.

The suit accuses the government of contributing to the catastrophic flooding in August 2005 by building the canal. It essentially says the federal government illegally took property without providing adequate compensation, which would be unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment.

The Corps’ infrastructure work has been blamed for resulting in the breach of levees and floodwalls, but until now court rulings had kept the government from having to shell out billions of dollars in flood damage.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail