Case is eligible for prompt consideration

WDSU-TV anchor and eastern New Orleans resident Norman Robinson, a Lower 9th Ward couple and two St. Bernard Parish residents joined forces Tuesday in a federal court lawsuit that blames the Army Corps of Engineers for flooding that destroyed their homes after Hurricane Katrina.

In pleadings that one of their attorneys called the opening volley in the second Battle of New Orleans, the plaintiffs charge that the corps' negligence over nearly 50 years in designing, building, operating and maintaining the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet eroded wetlands that had slowed storms down and turned the ship channel into a superhighway that funneled Katrina's powerful tidal surges toward them, breaking levees along the way.

"The United States government destroyed New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish," said Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell, who is leading a team of lawyers from 10 firms, most of them in Louisiana, in trying to get the courts to hold the corps accountable for what he branded "arrogant spurning of the standards of constructing waterways."

O'Donnell said the corps ignored warnings as far back as the MRGO's inception in 1958 that it could cause vast ecological damage. The corps' failure to address those concerns led to flooding in St. Bernard and New Orleans in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy and even worse flooding after Katrina last year, he said.

'A vanguard of justice'

The individuals who agreed to take on the government in the case, O'Donnell said, are "a vanguard of justice for their neighbors," because a victory in their case could set the stage for thousands of other Katrina flooding victims to seek compensation from the corps.

"The ultimate recovery, potentially running into the tens of billions of dollars, could be the largest ever against the United States government," he said.

In addition, O'Donnell said, he and his fellow attorneys would use a judgment against the corps to try to persuade Congress and the White House to establish a Katrina Victims' Compensation Fund, like the one set up to assist the families of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Like two similar federal cases filed this month, the suit brought by Robinson and his fellow plaintiffs asserts that a 1928 federal law immunizing the corps from lawsuits over its flood control projects does not bar claims for damage resulting from corps navigation projects, such as MRGO.

But unlike the other cases, the one filed Tuesday is not a proposed class action, which O'Donnell said means it could proceed quickly to trial before a judge who will be asked to declare the corps liable for the plaintiffs' flood damages and set "just compensation" for loss of their homes, personal property, income and peace of mind.

Stories of loss

Robinson is suing over flooding that so severely damaged the first floor of the house where he and his wife were helping raise their granddaughter that she had to be relocated to Houston.

He did not attend a news conference outside the 400 Poydras St. federal courthouse to announce filing of the case.

But the other plaintiffs were present. They are former Tulane University football player Kent Lattimore, who lost his St. Bernard trailer home and his growing real estate appraisal business to the floodwaters; nurse Tanya Smith, whose custom-built Chalmette residence, shared with two young sons, was ravaged by Katrina; and Lucille and Anthony Franz Jr., an elderly couple who lost their paid-for home and source of retirement income -- a five-apartment complex in the 5900 block of St. Claude Avenue -- to the floodwaters.

Attorney Jonathan Andry, who grew up in St. Bernard, said the new case is the upshot of conversations he began having with fellow lawyers after the storm about what could be done to help the thousands of St. Bernard and New Orleans residents whose lives were turned upside-down by Katrina.

He said the storm destroyed the entire St. Bernard community, all but four of 26,000 houses, and has left thousands from that community living temporarily in apartments with rental assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Many of those people told him they worry about what they'll do once FEMA stops paying their rent, Andry said.

"Just at a basic, human level -- the fact that this was predictable and avoidable -- it's wrong, it's unfair, it's unjust," Andry said. "And even more of an issue is the fact that until something is done with the MRGO, those people can't go back."

Class actions

In a class action clocked into court Monday, Phillip Reed, a Katrina evacuee, seeks damages for himself and everyone else affected by flooding that he claims was aggravated by years of dredging the waterway by the government and several companies. That work damaged manmade and natural flood-protection systems surrounding Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, the suit says. It asks the court to halt further such activity and to award compensation to Reed and other members of the class.

A second class action, filed April 13 as an update to a complaint filed against the government weeks earlier, contends the corps was negligent in design, construction, inspection and operation of not only the MRGO, but the entire navigable waterway system here, including the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the Industrial Canal, the London Avenue Canal and the 17th Street Canal and their levees. It asks for $2.5 million for each of its damage claims.

Both cases seek trial by a jury.

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Susan Finch can be reached at sfinch@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3340.