Overview
- The panel held that inundation tied to the Addicks and Barker reservoirs was a compensable taking, concluding the government knew or should have known the dams would damage private property.
- The decision immediately resolves liability for six homeowners and returns stayed cases to the trial court to organize claims and determine damages.
- Justice Department officials have not said whether they will seek rehearing before the full Federal Circuit or petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Plaintiffs’ attorneys are assembling a larger pool of claimants, including potential class action efforts, because the window for filing new individual suits has closed.
- Roughly 14,000 homes lay within the reservoirs during Harvey, with more than one-third flooding, in an area where the dams were built to protect downstream Houston.