Heirs of Koerber v. Orleans Levee Board

Citations

• 52 La. Ann. 2110

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>The Mississippi river in 1897 menaced the city of New Orleans with inundation. The protection levee at the upper line of the city, running from the river bank to the swamp, required strengthening and raising. The fast rising waters created an emergency and to meet it prompt action by the Levee Board was necessary. There was no time to take out regular expropriation proceedings and so the officials entered upon plaintiffs’ vacant lots bordering the levee and excavated from the same earth needed to raise and strengthen the levee at and near that point. A suit for damages followed and pending it the Levee Board caused the lots to be refilled. Held, the circumstances warranted the entry upon the property and the takifig of the earth for the purpose named; but the Board owed it to plaintiffs to refill the lots plus rather than minus. The refilling is found to be scant, and for this deficiency plaintiff is entitled to recover, as also for damage to the property by reason of restricted ingress to and egress from it, occasioned by works of defendant Board.</p>