A United States Court of Federal Claims held that the federal government was liable for a temporary taking caused by certain flooding during Hurricane Katrina and subsequent storms. The court found that the plaintiffs, who were property owners in St. Bernard Parish or the Lower Ninth Ward of the City of New Orleans, had established that the flooding of their properties was caused by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ construction, expansions, operation, and failure to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), a 76-mile-long navigational channel. One federal government argument rejected by the court was that the flooding was caused, not by MR-GO, but by subsidence, sea level rise, and land loss. With respect to this issue, the court said: “Although subsidence, sea level rise, and land loss took their toll on the region, the evidence in this case demonstrates that the MR-GO had the principal causal role in creating the environmental damage ….” Sabin Center Fellow Jennifer Klein <a href="http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2015/05/11/government-found-liable-for-hurricane-katrina-flooding/">wrote</a> about this case in May 2015.

Action by property owners in St. Bernard Parish and Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans seeking compensation for temporary taking of property caused by flooding during and after Hurricane Katrina.

St. Bernard Parish Government v. United States

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St. Bernard Parish Government v. United States - memorandum opinion and order

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United States of America

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