Benjamin Brown with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ management of the Missouri River caused regular flooding, a liability finding that sets the stage for a trial over what plaintiffs’ counsel estimated as $300 million in damages.
Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Nancy Firestone found that actions made by the Corps—rather than just nature—caused recurrent flooding of the Missouri River during five years that fell between 2007 and 2014. The ruling is a rare and significant decision against the U.S. Corp of Engineers, which a different Court of Federal Claims judge found in 2015 was liable for some of the Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans.
