Residents win canker compensation fight

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"The state owes fair compensation to nearly 41,000 Palm Beach County residents who had their citrus trees cut down during a failed decade-long effort to eradicate a harmful bacteria, a judge ruled.

Another case is under way in Broward County, and similar lawsuits are pending in Lee, Miami-Dade and Orange counties.

The class-action lawsuit was filed against the state Agriculture Department on behalf of David and Lillian Mendez of Boca Raton, who had their citrus trees cut down in 2001 as the state tried to stop the spread of canker.

The court found that the destruction of the trees constituted a ''taking'' under the Florida Constitution, "requiring full and just compensation," Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg wrote in her ruling late Friday.

A jury trial is set for March 31 to determine how much the state owes the plaintiffs.

"We were on the side of the good fight, and the judge recognized that the state can't take people's property without compensation," plaintiffs' lawyer Julie Littky-Rubin said Monday."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/339258.html