Home

To view this, you need to install the Flash Player 5. Please go to here and download it.

Nearly $14 Million Verdict in Class Action Citrus Canker Case

West Palm Beach, FL (March 8, 2011) – A Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury has decided the Florida Department of Agriculture must pay nearly $14 million to Palm Beach County homeowners as a result of the Department’s destruction of more than 66,000 healthy residential citrus trees under the failed Citrus Canker Eradication Program (CCEP).

In a non-jury trial in 2007, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Robin Rosenberg ruled that the Florida Department of Agriculture’s destruction of more than 66,000 residential citrus trees in Palm Beach County constituted a taking, requiring the State to pay full and just compensation to the Palm Beach County homeowners whose trees were destroyed. In the damages portion of the trial, taking place over the last few weeks, a jury determined the worth of the trees at $210 per tree which amounts to nearly $14 million total including interest. In a nearly identical case in Broward County in 2008, a jury awarded Broward County homeowners $11.5 million for the destruction of 133,000 citrus trees.

West Palm Beach trial attorney Bill Williams of Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath is one of several attorneys representing the homeowners in this case and similar cases around the State of Florida.

Click here to see the Palm Beach Post’s coverage of the case.

Cases We Handle

Auto Accidents

Products Liability

Medical Malpractice

Additional Practice Areas