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Citrus Canker
11/10/08 - 03:43 PM
Associated Press
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click for larger image Tallahassee, Fla:

The legal battle isn’t over for Broward County homeowners who have been seeking compensation from the state for trees destroyed in the fight against citrus canker.

The state Department of Agriculture is appealing a verdict handed down in May by a Broward County jury.

At issue is the value of thousands of residential citrus trees destroyed in an attempt to eradicate canker disease.

In May, a jury awarded the relatively low sum of $11.5 million to about 58,000 Broward homeowners.

In it’s appeal, the Department of Agriculture contends that the judge ignored higher court decisions when he ruled that trees within 1,900 feet of infected trees had value. The state presented expert testimony which indicated that trees within 1,900 feet of an infected citrus tree had been exposed to canker and were likely to become infected themselves.

The trees in Broward County were cut down as part of a decade-long canker eradication program that ended in 2006 when officials decided the bacteria that causes the disease had been spread too far by hurricanes. In all, some 16.5 million residential, commercial and nursery trees were destroyed.
   
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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