[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by residents of New Orleans against the US Army Corps of Engineers [official website], ruling that the Flood Control Act of 1928 [text] grants immunity to the Corps. The residents of New Orleans sued the Corps alleging that the Corps had been negligent in the collapse of a flood wall and levee caused by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive], arguing that the levee had been damaged prior to Katrina and that the Corps was negligent in maintaining it. While US District Judge Stanwood Duval, Jr. dismissed the suit, he also berated the Corps for their actions in building the levee system, saying that "millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system...which was known to be inadequate by the corps' own calculations."

In a separate canal breach case [LAED case materials], Duval ruled in February that those plaintiffs could proceed with claims [JURIST report] that the Corps ignored warnings that the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet contained defects that exacerbated flooding during Katrina. AP has more. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has local coverage.