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$11.5 Million Verdict in Canker Case
Bradenton Herald – May 7, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE – In a case with statewide ramifications, a jury decided Tuesday that the government owed more than $11.5 million to thousands of Broward County homeowners whose residential citrus trees were chopped down in an ultimately failed attempt to control canker disease.
The amount was far less than residents who brought the lawsuit had sought, leading attorneys for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to declare partial victory. They noted the jury decided to count about $7 million already paid out – giving the residents an average of an extra $34 per tree.
“It’s an amount that is much less than the plaintiffs expected,” said Wes Parsons, attorney for the department.
The 12-person jury reached its verdict in the class-action lawsuit after deliberating over much of the past two days. If the state appeals it could still be months before any of the more than 58,000 Broward residents involved in the case are paid.
The lawsuit was filed after the state chopped down about 133,700 trees in Florida’s second-most populous county as part of the canker eradication effort, then offered payments of between $55 and $100 for each tree – enough for a just a small replacement sapling.
The residents’ lawyer, Robert Gilbert, said it would take time to determine how much each homeowner might receive under the verdict. The jury had a choice to place values on destroyed trees based on their individual height but opted instead to award an aggregate amount.
One of the original residents who filed the lawsuit, Robert Pearce, said he was “disappointed” with the verdict. He lost two large tangerine trees.
“I was hoping they would go with an amount based on the height of the trees,” he said.
The jury foreman, Jonathan Cowan, said many on the panel placed great weight on government experts who said the trees were likely to become infected eventually and therefore had less value. Others thought the trees were worth much more.
“It was tough. We were very split,” Cowan said. “We were able to come up with a compromise.”
Beginning in 2000, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services destroyed any residential tree within a 1,900-foot radius of an infected tree.
Statewide, more than 16 million orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit and other citrus trees were cut down and burned during the 10-year, $1 billion eradication program. The state gave up in 2006 after concluding that a rash of hurricanes had spread canker too far to contain.
The outcome of the Broward case could have an impact on similar lawsuits pending in Miami-Dade, Lee, Palm Beach and Orange counties, potentially exposing the state to tens of millions of dollars in liability. A jury in Palm Beach County is expected this fall to take up the compensation issue.
Canker is spread by wind, birds and people. It causes blemishes on fruit and can make it drop prematurely, but it does not kill infected trees and ripe fruit can still be eaten or juiced. Still, the disease is considered a major threat to Florida’s $9 billion citrus industry, the largest in the U.S.
Broward Circuit Judge Ronald Rothschild previously ruled that homeowners were entitled to “full compensation” for destruction of their trees, leaving it to the jury to decide how much. State attorneys argued that meant zero because they were likely to become infected and worthless.
“The trees in the exposure zone were not healthy trees,” Parsons said.
The lawsuit contended the original payment of between $55 and $100 for each tree was enough only for a small sapling and didn’t account for trees standing 25 feet or taller that produced bountiful fruit for months at a time. Tim Farley said of Oakland Park said he lost six large orange and grapefruit trees.
“They destroyed beautiful trees that I painstakingly took care of for 13 years,” said Farley, one of the original residents who filed suit. “I don’t think it was fair that they took out healthy trees.”
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