Environmental Bad Guys Sued over Katrina Property Damage

October 20th, 2009. By LucyC

Climate change litigation. Ever heard of it? If not, brace yourself, it’s coming to a courtroom near you in the not too distant future. 

A decision handed down October 16th 2009 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed an earlier decision by a lower federal court which will allow a class action over property damage to proceed on environmental grounds. Yes, you read that correctly. 

So here’s the short version. Fourteen people who suffered property damage during Hurricane Katrina decided to launch a class action against the companies, namely Murphy Oil USA, they feel contributed to the severity of Katrina. The thinking goes that these companies’ emissions contributed to the greenhouse effect—which in turn paved the way for Katrina’s wrath. And now the plaintiffs argue that the companies are, therefore, responsible for the damage sustained from Katrina. Here’s what the appeals court wrote: 

“Here, the plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that defendants’ emissions caused the plaintiffs’ property damage, which is redressable through monetary damages; for example, the plaintiffs allege that defendants’ willful, unreasonable use of their property to emit greenhouse gasses constituted private nuisance under Mississippi law because it inflicted injury on the plaintiffs’ land by causing both land loss due to sea level rise and property damage due to Hurricane Katrina.” 

At least one legal expert believes that President Obama’s decision to classify carbon emissions as pollutants has provided a turning point for tighter environmental policies and accountability. Consequently, many people may feel that they can now at least successfully file suits against big polluters such as big oil, gas and chemical companies for the damage they are allegedly causing the environment, and consequently people who live in that environment or environments and their property. 

Needless to say this opens up a rather large can of worms, which may or may not be environmentally friendly, but the fallout will certainly be interesting to watch. Here’s hoping it’s the start of a trend!

Tags: Greenhouse, Hurricane Katrina

This was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.