A Louisiana state appellate court, by a 3-2 vote, has upheld an award of $1.3 billion–more than $21 thousand an acre–to 130 oyster farmers who leased land from the state. The award, supposed damages for a state environmental project meant to save Louisiana’s disappearing coast, is worth more than the entire haul of oysters from Louisiana over the last century and is twice the cost of the Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion Project in question. As if to demonstrate that this case is nothing more than a wealth transfer to enrich lawyers over taxpayers, one of the plaintiffs did not purchase his lease until the day the lawsuit was filed, and thus could not possibly have suffered damages, since nobody made him purchase the lease. The appeals court actually increased his award.
The state plans to take further appeals; the Secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources says the ruling left him “shocked.” “‘There’s no way in the world that any one acre of oysters can be worth $21,000,’ Jack Caldwell said. ‘Particularly when there’s no evidence that these leases had any oysters on them or even any oyster reefs.'” Oyster leases in Louisiana typically go for about $200/acre; the leases from the state are for $2/acre/year. Moreover, many of the leases in question had a clause indemnifying the state that the trial and appeals courts refused to rule upon. And in a final irony, when the project was first proposed in the 1980s, oyster farmers supported it as a means of restoring changing salinity levels that were destroying the industry. The state passed a constitutional amendment to limit the awards, but the constitutionality of its retroactivity provisions is obviously questionable. (Jeffrey Meitrodt, “Oyster Damages Upheld”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 16; AP, “Appeals court: $1.3 billion is reasonable claim for oyster farmers”, Oct. 16; Jeffrey Meitrodt, “Election didn’t put to rest all coastal liability”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 13; “Oystermen offer suit settlement”, AP, Aug. 10; Jeffrey Meitrodt, “Oyster farmers originally backed project”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 4; “The Avenal Lawsuits”, Louisiana Coastal Law, Oct. 2000 at pp. 4-5; “Naked Ownership” blog entry with many other links, May 4; related story on this site, Mar. 25-26, 2002). A lawsuit against the United States on identical grounds was thrown out of federal courts in 1995 and upheld on appeal in Avenal v. United States, 100 F.3d 933 (Fed. Cir. 1996). Update Oct. 24, 2004: La. Supreme Court throws out cases.
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