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<DIV style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"><A
href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-katrinasuits15sep15,0,6603241.story?track=tothtml">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-katrinasuits15sep15,0,6603241.story?track=tothtml</A><BR>
<H4>KATRINA'S AFTERMATH</H4>
<H1>Lawyers Planning a Deluge of Hurricane Damage Lawsuits</H1>By Joseph
Menn<BR>Times Staff Writer<BR><BR>September 15, 2005<BR><BR>After the flood
comes the flood of litigation.<BR><BR>Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina battered
the Gulf Coast, lawyers from the region are deciding whom to sue over the
catastrophe — or rather, whom to sue first.<BR><BR>At least one suit was filed
in the last week, and plans were being sketched out for many more. The targets
include real estate agents, insurance companies and federal agencies. The
potential damages being sought range from a few thousand dollars to billions of
dollars.<BR><BR>"You're going to have substantial litigation," said Daniel
Becnel Jr., a Louisiana attorney who spent last weekend interviewing
hydrologists and geologists and is working on multiple suits.<BR><BR>Many suits
will be fought by attorneys who have been displaced from their offices by
hurricane damage. They and other Louisiana lawyers will be in big demand because
theirs is the only U.S. state in which the legal system is based on the
Napoleonic Code rather than British common law. Some of the U.S.' most
successful plaintiffs' lawyers are based in the Gulf Coast
region.<BR><BR>Becnel, well known for suing tobacco and pharmaceutical
companies, is counting on million-dollar damage awards or settlements. Citing
statements by the Army Corps of Engineers, he claimed that a barge tore loose
from its moorings and caused the devastating levee breach on the Industrial
Canal in New Orleans. He plans to sue the barge's owner and its insurance
carriers. The potential beneficiaries of any award, he said, include "everyone
that got flooded in that area."<BR><BR>Suits are also expected against the
owners of facilities where the sick or elderly were allegedly abandoned. Dozens
of bodies were found inside Memorial Medical Center and at St. Rita's Nursing
Home in St. Bernard Parish.<BR><BR>The government generally enjoys immunity
against suits over actions taken as part of its regular functioning. That bars
damages when officials exercised normal discretion in their decision-making,
even if they blundered, said Georgetown University law professor Joseph
Page.<BR><BR>But New Orleans residents can take legal action if the Army Corps
of Engineers or other agencies failed to follow their own guidelines, he
said.<BR><BR>Becnel and others say they plan to claim that some government
agencies didn't meet their own standards.<BR><BR>Property owners are expected to
file a spate of suits against insurance firms that deny claims by arguing, for
example, that damage was caused not by high winds but by flooding, which is not
covered by many policies.<BR><BR>Richard Scruggs, a Mississippi lawyer who
helped many states reap multibillion-dollar awards from tobacco firms in the
1990s, has the insurance industry in his cross hairs. Scruggs lost his weekend
home in Pascagoula, Miss., to Katrina.<BR><BR>Scruggs said he planned to file
thousands of suits in state courts. He said the effort would be aided by a
Mississippi statute known as the "valued policy law." In a controversial
decision last year, a Florida appeals court held that a similar state law
required full restitution when a house was partly destroyed by hurricane winds,
even though flooding did most of the damage.<BR><BR>"The statute provides in
these states that if there's any damage at all by wind, they must pay the full
amount," Scruggs said.<BR><BR>A spokesman for the Property Casualty Insurers
Assn. of America said insurers wouldn't pay for uncovered flood damage and that
adjusters were trained to determine when flooding was the main
culprit.<BR><BR>"Typically in floods, the water rises from the bottom, and it
leaves a mark on your wall just like a ring on your bathtub," said spokesman
Joseph Annotti. But he said he couldn't talk about the valued policy
law.<BR><BR>In an earlier comment to A.M. Best Co., which rates the stability of
insurance companies, insurer association Vice President Don Griffin acknowledged
that the Florida decision might be an issue in Louisiana.<BR><BR>Scruggs
predicted that if the insurance companies lost in the courts, the industry would
ask Congress for a comprehensive settlement plan similar to the one enacted
after the Sept. 11 attacks, which distributed $7 billion to survivors of the
2,880 people killed and others who were wounded. People who promised not to sue
shared in the award.<BR><BR>Not all of the litigation will be for such high
stakes.<BR><BR>In Baton Rouge, La., C.J. Brown Realtors handled a recent offer
to sell a house to a plaintiffs' law firm looking to shelter its New Orleans
staff.<BR><BR>As demand for such housing surged, the homeowner decided he wanted
more money, according to the law firm, E. Eric Guirard &
Associates.<BR><BR>Guirard promptly sued the would-be seller and C.J. Brown,
accusing them of violating an anti-gouging statute.<BR><BR>E. Eric Guirard, a
personal injury lawyer known locally for television commercials seeking new
clients, this week began advertising for other potential gouging
victims.<BR><BR>C.J. Brown President Arthur Sterbcow, displaced from New Orleans
himself, said he couldn't control what price his client asked for his
property.<BR><BR>"They haven't suspended personal property rights, as far as I
know," Sterbcow grumbled. "This is where lawyers pay for their law school."
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