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Tag: ClimateChangeInducedMovement

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In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation 

Date: 18 November 2009

Court: United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana

Citation: 647 F. Supp. 2d 644

Short summary  

Hundreds of thousands of homes were lost in Hurricane Katrina and most homeowners’ insurance policies excluded them from compensation. This led many victims of Katrina to sue the United States government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), alleging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) failed to properly maintain the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, leading to the breach of one of New Orleans’ levees. The District Court held the U.S. was not immune from such a suit and held the Corps liable to some of the plaintiffs. This judgment was later reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, on the grounds that the U.S. has sovereign immunity under the FTCA from such claims. 

Summary by: David Cremins

Link to Original Judgement

Click here to open the case in PDF format

Weight of decision  

The ruling by the Eastern District of Louisiana District Court, insofar as its logic was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, holds precedential authority in the Fifth District (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi) and persuasive authority in other U.S. Circuits (see, e.g., favourable analysis in the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois). However, this ruling has subsequently been read narrowly by the same Eastern District court (holding there must be “ample record evidence” the government neglected its duty to maintain waterways implicated in flooding).  

Key facts 

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA; 28 USC §171), the U.S. government is immune from liability if its (in)action can be classified as a discretionary function (i.e., a policy decision left to an agency via legislation) rather than a specifically delegated ministerial duty not executed with due care.  

Under the Flood Control Act (FCA; 33 USC §702c), the U.S. government is immune from liability for damage stemming from its flood control efforts.  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) were charged with construction, maintenance, and operation of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a navigational channel. This mandate was separate from the Corps’ efforts directed at flood control and levee construction and maintenance in southern Louisiana.  

Over decades, the Corps failed to prevent the MRGO from expanding well beyond its intended width, destroying wetlands which are protective against storm surges. This in contravention of the National Environmental Policy Act and despite repeated internal and external reports warning of the danger of not shoring up the MRGO’s banks. This failure was a substantial cause of the breach of a levee, leading to catastrophic flooding of St. Bernard parish in the New Orleans metropolitan area.  

Previous instances  

This case relies on Central Green v. United States (U.S. Supreme Court, 2001), wherein Justice Stevens held that the U.S. was not entitled to immunity under the FCA from damage caused by any and all flood waters. Instead, the government must show that flooding is connected with projects serving a primarily flood control purpose, in order for mismanagement of such projects to grant immunity.  

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Ontunez Tursios v. Ashcroft

Date: 13 August 2002

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

Citation: 303 F.3d 341 (5th Cir. 2002)

Short summary 

A Honduran man, fleeing targeted violence stemming from a land dispute and exacerbated by hurricane damage, was denied refugee status in the United States for failing to establish a nexus between his persecution and the grounds for asylum.

Summary by: David Cremins

Link to Original Judgement

Click here to open the case in PDF format

Weight of decision 

This decision is a binding part of the asylum case law developed in the Fifth Circuit (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) and may be persuasive in other jurisdictions in the United States. 

Key facts

The applicant for asylum, Mr. Ontunez-Tursios, moved to the town of La Ceiba in 1994 and joined other campesinos in cultivating a piece of coastal land known as Las Delicias. In 1996, a group of businessmen, wishing to sell Las Delicias to Korean investors, challenged the campesinos possession of the land, unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation against them, during which at least two campesinos were assassinated. Mr. Ontunez-Tursios found out he was on a hit list and, after being directly threatened several times, fled to the United States, where he applied for asylum in October 1999.

During this violent dispute over land possession, in October 1998 Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras, including Las Delicias. The storm ruined Mr. Ontunez-Tursios’ land as well as key documentary evidence against the businessmen pursuing him and the other campesinos.

Previous instances

The immigration judge who first heard Mr. Ontunez-Tursios’ case denied him refugee status because his claim did not arise on account of the enumerated grounds for persecution. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) agreed that he failed to show a nexus between his persecution and either his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, leading to this appeal before the Fifth Circuit.

Summary of holding

In a 2-1 panel decision, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the rulings below, finding that the BIA correctly dismissed Mr. Ontunez-Tursios’ contention that his leadership in the land conflict did not constitute a political opinion or membership in the particular social group of “land rights leaders”. Stripping away the context of land struggle and the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, the court held that his “evidence showed no motive of the persecutors other than a private, economic one.” The court further found that Mr. Ontunez-Tursios did not qualify for withholding of removal because he was at no risk of torture in his home country, and that the Honduran government had not implicitly or explicitly acquiesced to his persecution or torture.

Potential takeaways for future climate migration litigation

  • Increasingly, claims for asylum and other humanitarian protections will have to be considered in the context of climate change. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch in Honduras provides an early example of how an already difficult situation – a violent battle over valuable land between the upper and lower classes in a society – is made worse following disasters. Advocates for climate migrants should note how fights over land and other forms of social violence intermix with a changing climate, including through slow-onset shifts in conditions.
  • As in other cases in jurisdictions around the world, the harm from the climate disaster itself – destruction of land and evidentiary documents – had no bearing on Mr. Ontunez-Tursios’ unsuccessful claim for asylum, even as it exacerbated his vulnerability in his home country.
  • Under United States law, the nexus prong – that persecution must be “on account of” one of the five grounds first laid out in the 1951 Refugee Convention – is often narrowly construed, such that even clear instances of persecutory violence, whether or not connected to climate change, do not qualify even sympathetic applicants such as Mr. Ontunez-Tursios for refugee status.
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