CHARLESTON -- Mississippi County's claims against the Corps for tearing up county roads were denied.
Commissioners reviewed during their regular weekly meeting Thursday the letter from the U.S. Department of the Army's Tort Claims Division received Wednesday notifying the county of "final administrative action" on the county's claims.
Three breaches were blown in the levee by the Corps to activate the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway during the spring 2011 floods. The county's claims for damages done to county roads between the fall of 2011 and the summer of 2012 by overloaded trucks during the reconstruction of frontline levee "are denied," advised Lt. Col. Mark E. Eichelman, chief of the Tort Claims Division, in the letter.
Eichelman states in the letter that under the Federal Tort Claims Act, "the U.S. can only be held liable under limited circumstances where the negligent acts or omissions of U.S. employees acting within the scope of their employment proximately cause injury. The U.S. hired contractors to repair the levee. The U.S. did not control the physical performance of the contractors, nor supervise their day-to-day operations. Thus, there is no evidence of negligence on the part of any Government employees acting within the scope of their employment."
For the complete story, see the Friday edition of the Standard Democrat.