There is a scene in the movie 'Liar Liar' in which the great Jim Carrey, stretching to play a smarmy California lawyer, convinces Jennifer Tilley she should divorce her husband and mulct him for substantial money. All she and the law firm would be seeking, he insists, is a sum she has earned.
"And just a little bit more," Carrey adds in a quick, transparently false finish.
That scene has been playing in my mind since the announcement the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East had filed a lawsuit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies. The levee agency formed post-Katrina argues the defendants have inflicted enormous damage on Louisiana marshes and wetlands through their sustained clawing at the earth to get the raw materials on which civilization depends.
As the diminishing coast puts ever-greater strains on the levee system, the young board said it had no choice but to file suit.
Several aspects make this seem a reasonable or necessary step on the surface. For example, the notion energy companies' activity has contributed to land loss in Louisiana is hardly controversial. It seems unlikely even lawyers would argue that isn't true.
When looking at images of Louisiana's coast, one needs neither a medical nor a geological degree to make the diagnosis: Louisiana has emphysema. The digging, the dredging and the enormous amounts of saltwater that have flowed into freshwater systems as a result of such earth moving have left a landscape that looks like a heavy smokers' lungs; pockmarked, blown-out, shredded.
On top of such common sense and visual evidence is the plaintiffs' point man thus far, the author and Flood Protection Authority - East vice president, John Barry. I have never met Barry, but I am familiar with his book on The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and his scholarship and writing are quite impressive. His public comments about the lawsuit have only reinforced the notion this is a reasonable, smart and classy guy.
"We are looking for the industry to fix the part of the problem that they created," Barry said. "We're not asking them to fix everything. We only want them to address the part of the problem that they created."
If only Barry could be the judge. Alas, history suggests litigation this complex and big could outlast Barry and many others. The case of Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East vs. The 97 may not be Jarndyce v. Jarndyce for our time, but the chances it is resolved quickly and cleanly should it go forward are bleak indeed.
In other words, someone is just off-stage from Barry whispering, "and just a little bit more."
On this point, the lung disease analogy remains apt. There are lawyers who have spent their whole careers haggling about asbestos and mesothelioma, for instance. Then there is an echo of the tobacco industry shakedown engineered by ambitious politicians and some unscrupulous lawyers.
Like the suit against the oil and gas companies, that action employed a novel legal theory - that states should be reimbursed for money spent treating tobacco-caused illness. Logically, that means money recouped by the states should be distributed to the taxpayers who footed the bills. Oddly, I am unaware of any taxpayer so reimbursed, although a Florida district judge estimated the lead lawyers, had they worked 24 hours a day for 42 months, would pocket an hourly fee of $7,716.
If there is a group of defendants with pockets deep enough to match Big Tobacco it is surely Big Oil. Consequently, Barry's statement should be amended to note that "the part of the problem (the defendants) created" is sure to prove an ever bigger, ever more expensive part.
This predictable history was one reason - and in many ways the most persuasive reason - Gov. Bobby Jindal lashed out against the lawsuit. In a press release, he fumed the lawsuit was ginned up by "a single levee board that has been hijacked by a group of trial lawyers."
The gripes of Jindal and other politicians that the levee board has usurped authority more properly vested in them, or warnings settlements may mess up nebulous or unfunded restoration plans seem a lot less compelling. It's unseemly for elected officials to do nothing for years on end and then whine when someone else takes bold action.
It's simply and in some ways quite literally a rotten situation. Louisiana's coast unravels, leaving its southern residents with less and less protection from hurricanes and floods, and a proposal is on the table that may solve some of the problem but will make many lawyers unimaginably filthy stinking rich.
Doesn't anyone have a better idea?
James Varney can be reached at jvarney@nola.com
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