State Refusing To Citrus Canker Pay Outs
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – After waiting for more than a decade for the state to pay up, homeowners in two South Florida counties whose citrus trees were chopped down by the state to stop the spread of citrus canker are still for compensation.
"I just think it's a new low," said Tim Farley whose orange, grapefruit and lemon trees were cut down. "They did an injustice to the people and they have to pay us. They are spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money to fight us. They are slapping the people like they always have."
Like thousands of others, Farley told the Associated Press he was dismayed when the state chopped down his backyard trees,but at least he figured he'd get paid after judges ordered Florida years ago to compensate him and others.
Yet despite rulings in favor of tree owners in two counties, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has so far refused to pay Farley and many others so much as a nickel.
The state's position is that the Legislature would have to approve a special bill — known as a claims bill — before any money can be paid. So far, the decisions in Broward and Palm Beach counties have the state on the hook for about $30 million in combined compensation. There are still cases pending in Miami-Dade, Orange and Lee counties that could account for millions more.
"All the money comes from taxpayers," said Wes Parsons, an attorney representing the Agriculture Department. "If they are paid, the Legislature must appropriate the money to do so. There has not been a claims bill filed."
Attorney Robert Gilbert, who represents the former tree owners, said it shouldn't come to that. Gilbert said judges have ruled that the destruction of the trees amounted to a government "taking" that requires more immediate fair compensation — similar to when the government condemns private property to put a road through.
The 4th District Court of Appeal, in upholding the Broward County decision in favor of tree owners, rejected the state's argument that the trees were a "public nuisance" that had no value because of the potential they could spread the disease. Instead, the judges said, the trees had value and were chopped down mainly to benefit Florida's citrus industry.
"If trees are destroyed not to prevent harm but instead to benefit an industry, it is difficult to understand how (the Agriculture Department) can argue on appeal that the trees legally constituted a nuisance without any value," the judges ruled in May 2010. "If government cuts down and burns private property having value, then government has taken it. And if government has taken it, government must pay for it."
The state did give homeowners a $100 debit card good at Wal-Mart garden centers for the first tree that was removed and $55 cash for each tree after that. The tree replacement programs, which cost the state $44 million, ended in 2009. But Farley and thousands of other tree owners considered that too little for healthy trees that in some cases were 30 feet tall, so they filed lawsuits representing classes of all affected tree owners.
Legal battles over control of agricultural diseases and pests go back many decades nationally. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the subject came in 1928, when the justices upheld Virginia's right to cut down a grove of red cedar trees to protect nearby apple orchards from rust disease.
The justices found that the Constitution allows states to carry out "the destruction of one class of property in order to save another which, in the judgment of the legislature, is of greater value to the public." But that ruling did not address the subject of fair compensation.
In Florida, the healthy backyard trees were cut down and burned during the state's decade-long, $623 million attempt to eradicate citrus canker. The fight was ultimately abandoned in 2006 after a series of hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Wilma in 2005, spread the wind-borne disease widely across the state.
Canker causes blemishes and can make fruit drop prematurely, but the disease does not kill infected trees and ripe fruit can still be eaten or made into juice. Still, the disease is considered a major threat to Florida's $9 billion citrus industry, the largest in the U.S. The canker bacteria doesn't affect humans.
It was first identified in Florida in 1910, declared eradicated in 1933, but then appeared again in 1986. The latest war on canker started in 1994. Beginning in 2000, the state destroyed any residential tree within a 1,900-foot radius of an infected tree — even if there was no evidence of infection on the trees earmarked for destruction.
All told, more than 16.5 million trees were destroyed, including more than 865,000 residential trees. The rest were at commercial groves and nurseries.
In Broward County, a jury authorized an additional $34 per tree and the Palm Beach case would pay $210 more for each tree. The state continues to appeal both rulings, and ultimately the overall issue of additional compensation is likely to land at the state Supreme Court.
Gilbert contends the time has long passed for payments to be made and said he will return to court in an effort to force the state to compensate those who lost trees, rather than relying on the whims of the Legislature.
(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
