While there have been a tremendous number of lawsuits filed in Louisiana, some have received more attention than others. These are a few of the more significant lawsuits that have been filed in the federal courts in Louisiana:

• The Murphy Oil USA Inc. lawsuits: Several class action suits have been filed against the company, which operates a refinery in St. Bernard Parish. An oil tank at the refinery spilled more than 1 million gallons of crude oil, which contaminated more than 2,500 homes and prompted 19 separate class action lawsuits.

• The fisheries case: Several commercial fishermen’s groups, including the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association and the Louisiana Shrimp Association, are pursuing a class action lawsuit against oil and gas companies in south Louisiana. The defendants include Shell Pipeline, Chevron, Bass Enterprises Production, and Sundown Energy. The groups allege that more than 9 million gallons of oil escaped the companies’ facilities during Katrina and destroyed oyster beds and fishing grounds along the Gulf Coast.

• The eroding wetlands dispute: A separate suit against more than a dozen major oil and gas producers alleges that drilling and pipeline activities in southeast Louisiana caused the destruction of marshes that would have limited hurricane damage to New Orleans.

• The levee-failure lawsuits: Several suits target the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local levee boards, alleging that design and construction defects in the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain led them to fail and flood the city.

• The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet suit: A suit against the Army Corps of Engineers alleges that the 66-mile channel, which was dug in the late 1950s through St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes to create a shortcut for ships traveling to New Orleans, makes flooding worse in those parishes.

Source: USA Today

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