[StBernard] Judge refuses to extend deadline to file

[Westley Annis]

Corps extend hours to file claim forms
By Susan Finch 
Staff writer 


Although a judge refused to give flood victims more time to turn in claim
forms needed to sue the federal government over levee breaks, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers announced it would continue to accept forms at its 7400
Leake Ave. headquarters until 11:59 p.m. today. 
Earlier today, New Orleanians were scrambling to meet what the Corps's
original deadline of 4 p.m. to get the forms to its office here or into its
Loyola Avenue post office box, or by the close of business at Corps District
offices elsewhere around the nation. 
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval today denied a request to extend the
deadline. 
In a three-page order, Duval said he doesn't think he has the power to issue
a blanket order that would lift the Admiralty Extension Act deadline for
filing Form SF 95 administrative claim forms with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers: no later than 18 months after the event in question - in this
case, Hurricane Katrina. 
But Duval appeared to leave the door open for the possibility of extending
the deadline in individual cases. In order to make this determination,
specific evidence of an individual claim must be presented to the court if
the government argues the claim wasn't filed timely and the plaintiff
contends more time should have been given to get the claim in. The Corps
offered no explanation for today's change of plan. 
Extension of the Corps' deadline to accept federal Admiralty Extension Act
claim forms came at the close of a business day that started with word of
the judge's decision. 
The ruling came in response to a motion filed Monday by attorneys for
plaintiffs in a long list of pending federal lawsuits that blame negligence
by Corps of Engineers for the levee failures. 
The plaintiffs' attorneys told Duval that the deadline should be extended
beyond March 1 because the government's lawyers had reneged on a deal that
would have permitted claims under both the admiralty law and the Federal
Tort Claims Act to be filed no later than two years after the Aug. 29, 2005,
storm. 
Duval said there was insufficient evidence that individual plaintiffs were
misled by the government about the claims-filing period. 
And the fact that lawsuits are proposed for class action status doesn't
alleviate the responsibility of each affected person to get an
administrative claim in on time, he said. 
One of the attorneys for the Katrina plaintiffs, Joe Bruno, said that
despite Duval's ruling, every New Orleans resident and business damaged by
the Aug. 29, 2005, flooding should send in their forms to get in line to sue
the Corps. 
The deadline to file the forms to sue under another law, the Federal Tort
Claims Act, is Aug. 29, Bruno said. 
Bruno said the Corps' decision to keep its Leake Avenue office open to
accept claims forms until a minute before midnight Thursday shows "they are
just waking up to the reality of the situation." 
"We're talking about somebody that's been run over by a Corps of Engineers
truck," he said. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people who
have sustained enormous damage, and because of that, you have to change your
thinking."