FEMA seeks immunity from suits over trailers

[unhappycamper]

Source: Boston Globe / Associated Press

FEMA seeks immunity from suits over trailers
By Michael Kunzelman
Associated Press / July 24, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked a federal judge yesterday for immunity from lawsuits over potentially dangerous fumes in government-issued trailers that have housed tens of thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims.

Lawyers for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita accuse FEMA of negligence for sheltering them in trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde, a preservative used in construction materials that can cause health problems.

But a government lawyer told US District Judge Kurt Engelhardt that the FEMA's decisions in responding to a disaster, including its use of travel trailers after Katrina, are legally protected from "judicial second-guessing."

"It is what the legislative branch is supposed to second guess, and they are doing that," Department of Justice attorney Henry Miller said, referring to a series of congressional hearings on formaldehyde concerns.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/24/fema_seeks_immunity_from_suits_over_trailers/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Would that also prevent

civil claims under negligence ?

[L0oniX]

2. Is everyone seeking immunity these days? Geeze

[primavera]

3. Hey, zero accountability is the Republican way

No accountability for torture, no accountability for kidnapping and murder of suspected enemy combattants, no accountability for illegal wiretapping, no accountability for lying us into an illegal and pointless war, no accountability for contempt of Congress, no accountability for... well, anything at all. Why should this be any different?