Anne Bucher  |  January 29, 2015

Category: Closed Class Actions

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This settlement is closed!

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garbage in landfill

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit over hazardous materials related to the Agriculture Street Landfill in New Orleans. If you have lived or worked on the Agriculture Street Landfill site, or if you are a former student or employee of Moton Elementary School who attended or worked at the school on the landfill site, you could be eligible for benefits from the class action settlement.

The Agriculture Street Landfill, located in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, operated as a municipal landfill and garbage dump from the early 1900s until it was closed in 1958. The site was reopened in 1965 to dispose of debris from Hurricane Betsy. Subsequently, the city allowed residential homes to be built on the landfill site allegedly without conducting remediation of the land. Residents were allegedly not informed that the site had once been used as the city’s landfill. The Moton School was also constructed in the area, but the school board allegedly did not inform parents or employees that environmental tests had found toxic materials on the school site.

The Agriculture Street Landfill class action lawsuit was initially filed in 1993, after a study by the Environmental Protection Agency found the former landfill site was contaminated with more than 149 toxic and hazardous materials, many of which are carcinogenic. The Agriculture Street Landfill neighborhood was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List in 1994 and was later declared a superfund site.

Two ASL class action settlements, which provide benefits to those who may be affected by hazardous materials at the landfill site, received preliminary approval in 2014.

Who’s Eligible

Class Members of the Agriculture Street Landfill class action settlement include: “All persons who are a member of at least one of the following 4 groups, and who, as a direct result and consequence of living or working on, and/or owning property on the Site, have at least one of the following claims: loss of value to their property and/or to their businesses, mental and emotional distress, fear of contraction of cancer and other diseases, medical monitoring for early detection of certain diseases or illnesses, relocation, and/or any other economic loss.”

Group 1 includes: “Current and former residents who have lived on the site of the former landfill, as defined as the area bounded on the north by Higgins Blvd., on the east by Louisa Street, on the south by Florida Avenue and on the west by Almonaster Avenue and the Peoples Avenue Canal, for at least twelve months prior to February 1, 1994.”

Group 2 includes: “Current and former business owners and their employees who have operated a business on the former landfill site, as described above, for at least twelve months prior to February 1, 1994.”

Group 3 includes: “Current residents who are the owners of record of their homes, or who are buying their homes but have not yet completed their payments.”

Group 4 includes: “Former students and employees of Moton Elementary School who attended or worked at the school on the site of the former landfill for at least twelve months or one full school year prior to February 1, 1994.”

Potential Award

Varies. The allocation each Class Member is eligible to receive is listed on the letters that were mailed on Nov. 21, 2014 or Jan. 27, 2015.

According to the ASL class action settlement website: “Allocations for the Class area, including Gordon Plaza, Gordon Plaza Senior Apartments and Press Park Townhomes, are based upon how long you resided at the address prior to December 31, 2000. Therefore, you must have established your beginning date and end date, at each address claimed for the period for which you claim residency. For an ownership claim to be valid, you must have been the owner of a Class Area property on January 31, 1993. Allocations for the remaining class area are set at a flat rate, no matter how long you may have resided or worked in that area.”

Moton School student or employee claims are not part of the allocation.

If the allocation is approved by the court, and all appeal delays are complete, Class Members will receive notification about when the allocation will be distributed.

Proof of Purchase

N/A

Objection Deadline

Class Members who received a letter mailed Jan. 27, 2015 have until Feb. 6, 2015 to object to their allocation.

If you received a letter mailed Nov. 21, 2014, the deadline to object to your allocation has passed.

Case Name

John Johnson, et al. v. Orleans Parish School Board, et al., Case No. 93-14333, in the Civil District Court for the Parish of New Orleans

Final Hearing

Hearings will be held from Feb. 10-12, 2015 for Class Members who notify the court that they object to their allocation. Check the settlement website to find out what time you should appear in court.

Settlement Website
Claims Administrator

John Johnson, et al. v. Orleans Parish School Board, et al., Case No. 93-14333, in the Civil District Court for the Parish of New Orleans

Class Counsel

Suzette Bagneris
Joseph M. Bruno
Linda S. Harang
Robin Myers at Murray Law Firm
George J.G. Roux

Defense Counsel

Martha Y. Curtis
SHER GARNER CAHILL RICHTER KLEIN & HILBERT LLC

Mary S. Johnson
JOHNSON GRAY MCNAMARA LLC

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21 thoughts onAgriculture Street Landfill Class Action Settlement

  1. Darrell brown says:

    I wen to Morin school in Neworleans la… and I never received my money can somebody please email me back abt answering or something abt this

  2. Ricky says:

    Any here anything

  3. F e l i s h Thomas says:

    I lived in press Park when they first build them in in 1970 at 3335 press Court and all I can remember is we called it a smoke hole and that’s what it look like smoke coming in out of a hole and everything smelled like five and I think that was hell for us in the beginning and this is before molding this is before the houses it was just press pause and that allotment wasn’t s***

  4. Denise Collins says:

    CAN WE GET PAID BEFORE WE DIE Y’ALL KNOW WE ARE GOING TO DIE ONE DAY BUT THANKS TO Y’ALL OUR DAYS HERE HAVE BEEN LIMITED JUST PAY US PLEASE & THANKS FOR NOTHING YES I’M BEING SARCASTIC BUTT I’M VERY PISS’D ??

    1. E.J says:

      Did they say anything about the students that went to moton ? Last be heard was way in 2014 never heard anything since.

  5. Denise Collins says:

    I lived in a desired project born and raised my children attended moton School today my children have health issues one daughter needs a kidney transplant my other daughter is taking medications to shrink the tumors my son almost died in 2005 in 2017 I believe it was I i had a blood transfusion and I’m taking medications today I think this is sad that they’re just waiting for us to die so they don’t have to pay this money out

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