Julie DeWoody Greathouse, Matthew N. Miller, and Kimberly D. Logue

Perkins & Trotter, PLLC petitions the United States Supreme Court to review important Fifth Amendment case for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

On November 9th, 2011, Perkins & Trotter attorney Julie DeWoody Greathouse filed a petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court asking it to review a decision by the Federal Circuit that reversed a $5.7 million trial judgment against the United States for physically taking the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission's property under the Fifth Amendment.  The case arose after eight years of actions by the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed much of the Commission's habitat at the Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area near Pocahontas.  The trial court (Court of Federal Claims) awarded damages for the Commission's lost timber and to regenerate lost habitat at one of Arkansas's premiere areas supporting migratory birds.  The Federal Circuit reversed solely because the United States' actions were not permanent and the flooding eventually stopped.  The certiorari petition asserts that the Federal Circuit's decision creates a jumbled state of Fifth Amendment law and gives the Corps of Engineers great authority to temporarily flood private property without liability.

Julie DeWoody Greathouse prepared the petition with Perkins & Trotter lawyers Matthew N. Miller and Kimberly D. Logue, and Arkansas Game & Fish Commission lawyers James F. Goodhart and John P. Marks.  The case was docketed on November 16, 2011 as case number 11-597.