Argument in the West Virginia Flood Litigation

Argument will be heard by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals today (April 16) in the appeals by plaintiffs in the In Re Flood Litigation. The lawsuits were filed following floods that occurred in July of 2001 and May of 2002 throughout southern West Virginia. The 2001 floods were assigned to a mass litigation panel consisting of 3 judges. The trials were split up by watersheds, and in March of 2006 the first, for flooding in a portion of the Upper Guyandotte, was held, with a verdict for the plaintiffs. That verdict was subsequently set aside by the presiding judge, JudgeHutchison. The second watershed that was set for trial was the Coal River, but Judge Recht dismissed the plaintiffs' claims before discovery was completed.

The history of the lawsuits is long and convoluted, and involves at least one trip to the Supreme Court already (In Re Flood Litigation, 216 W. Va. 534, 607 SE 2d 869 (2004). If you are interested in the issues being appealed, and background of the litigation, the WVSCA website has the briefs that were filed, as well as the orders appealed from, at http://www.state.wv.us/wvsca/calendar/april08.htm