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Class-action status granted for Nevada canal suit

Posted by: Maven on May 12, 2009 at 2:20 pm

From the Monterey County Herald:

A state judge in Lyon County has granted class-action status to flood victims suing an irrigation district over the collapse of part of a century-old canal that sent a wall of water into the town of Fernley in January 2008. The new order is the latest in a complicated series of legal cases in both state and federal court that already involve more than 30 lawyers representing six government entities, real estate agents, homebuilders, construction companies and potentially more than 500 homeowners.

The Truckee Carson Irrigation District, the chief target of the lawsuits, argued all the cases should be heard in U.S. District Court in Reno. That’s where another legal battle is continuing this week over liability for the canal’s failure and the way it should be managed in the future.

But Senior District Judge Miriam Shearing, a former state Supreme Court justice appointed to hear the suit filed in Lyon County, said in a ruling issued May 8 there is “no reason why the issue of TCID’s liability” should not be determined in state court in Yerington. “Even though other issues and claims regarding the Fernley flood are in other courts, including federal court, the discrete issue of TCID’s responsibility for the flood can be determined in this forum,” she wrote.

Read more from the Monterey County Herald by clicking here.

May 12, 2009 · Filed Under Las Vegas & Nevada

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