Hurricane Katrina Lawsuit Results in Damages Against Army Corps

A federal judge ruled last week in favor of residents from New Orlean’s Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish over the Army Corps of Engineers’ maintenance of the city’s levees, potentially exposing the government to liability in a number of Hurricane Katrina lawsuits.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. awarded $719,698 to a group of plaintiffs from the St. Bernard parish in New Orleans who sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for failing to properly maintain levees with burst during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe of 2005. While the ruling was in favor of only four residents and one business, potentially thousands of Katrina victims could sue the government on the same grounds, which could lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in liability exposure for the federal government.

The plaintiffs in the property damage lawsuit argued that the Corps was negligent in the design, construction and maintenance of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, known as the MRGO (Mister Go) canal. Residents said that dredging by the Corps allowed the storm surge generated by the hurricane to sweep into the parish virtually unimpeded.

Duval found that the Army Corps negligently maintained the canal, but rejected arguments that the design itself was faulty. Duval verbally skewered the Corps in his opinion on the case.

“It is the Court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness,” Duval wrote in his November 18 opinion. “The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly the expression ‘talk is cheap’ applies here.”

The ruling may have far reaching consequences, as tens of thousands of homes or businesses in the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard’s Parish were destroyed. One Army report estimated that the government’s total liability in the cases could exceed $500 billion.

The ruling has brought a number of bipartisan statements calling for the government to settle with Katrina victims and take action to prevent similar Army Corps of Engineer failings in the future. Senators Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican said they were glad to see relief ordered for hurricane victims. Vitter said the decision could serve as a warning against similar problems in the future.

In addition Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and Republican Senator John McCain issued a joint statement calling for sweeping reforms for the Corps in the wake of the ruling. “American taxpayers cannot wait for another natural disaster like Katrina before we act to improve the safety and security of Corps projects,” the statement said.