Katrina Lawyers: U.S. Should Resolve Damages in Wake of Appeals Court Ruling in Favor of New Orleans Flood Victims

NEW ORLEANS, March 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Pierce O'Donnell, lead trial attorney in the landmark Hurricane Katrina case against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, urged the federal government to immediately begin settlement discussions in the wake of today's landmark decision by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Robinson v. United States, the Appeals Court on Friday upheld a New Orleans federal judge's 2009 decision that the Army Corps of Engineers is liable for the cataclysmic destruction of the nation's 35th largest city caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  

"This is the worst man-made catastrophe in U.S. history,'' O'Donnell said. "Two respected federal courts have now ruled unanimously that the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the drowning of New Orleans and the government should be held accountable. It is time for the Justice Department to stop litigating and start long overdue discussions about economic justice for the residents of New Orleans.''

Said co-lead counsel Jonathan Andry of New Orleans, "This is a huge victory for the people of St. Bernard Parish. Unfortunately, they are being vindicated more than six years too late. Anthony Franz is dead. Lucille Franz is dead. They are not here to enjoy this decision. This should never have happened to an American city. The court's ruling demonstrates that the judicial system works and there is such a thing as justice. The victory speaks to the institutional arrogance of the Army Corps of Engineers. Now something needs to be done to fix it."

The U.S. government had appealed a decision by U.S. District Judge Stanwood J. Duval, Jr. in November 2009 that the Army Corps of Engineers was guilty of gross negligence for the failure of levees in dozens of locations that led to the catastrophic flooding and devastated a 100-square-mile metropolitan area.

In its appeal, the government did not contest Judge Duval's factual findings that the catastrophe was caused by the "monumental" negligence, "insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness" of the Corps. Instead, the Justice Department argued that the federal government should be immune from responsibility for the disaster.

"At points where it could have mattered, the Corps did not identify MRGO's ability to aggravate the effect of a major hurricane," the Court ruled. "This is not a situation in which the Corps recognized a risk and chose not to mitigate it out of concern for some other public policy (e.g., navigation or commerce); it flatly failed to gauge the risk." 

O'Donnell said it is time for the government to do what is right and begin settlement discussions.

"We are eager to sit down and forge a global settlement for all Katrina victims," O'Donnell said. "It's the right thing to do. Any settlement must assure expeditious restoration of the hurricane surge buffering wetlands around New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, an equitable compensation program for victims, and funding for critical infrastructure destroyed by the Army Corps' gross mismanagement of flood protection."

O'Donnell said there's no better time to resolve the issue than in a presidential year. "This is a victory not just for several hundred thousand Katrina victims, but for all Americans,'' he said. "A democracy is only as strong as the ability of its citizens to hold their government accountable for its wrongful acts."

The original litigation focused on the key role of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, known as the "MRGO," in channeling a prodigious and terrifying storm surge that helped overwhelmed the levee system.  Constructed in the 1960s and now defunct, the MRGO was a 76-mile shipping channel that connected the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans.

"For more than 50 years, government officials at all levels and environmentalists warned that the MRGO one day would turn into a "Hurricane Highway," Andry said.  "That prophecy became tragically true when Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and furiously funneled its floodwaters into the heart of Greater New Orleans."

In its wake, Katrina took 1,300 lives, destroyed 300,000 homes, forced 1 million residents to evacuate, and inflicted more than $100 billion in property damages. Nearly 150,000 homes remain unoccupied more than 6 years after Katrina.

The Robinson case against the Army Corps was notable for many reasons, including its size and potential damages against the government. The Department of the Army, in a public disclosure two years ago, estimated the government's potential losses on Katrina-related lawsuits and legal claims at a minimum of $10 billion and as high as $100 billion.

SOURCE Pierce O’Donnell, Jonathan Andry, co-counsel