Court of Appeals rules for Coast utility authority
“The Mississippi Court of Appeals has sided with a South Mississippi utility authority in a dispute over the use of eminent domain to take private property for a massive sewage plant built with federal Hurricane Katrina money.
The court’s ruling on Tuesday overturns about $47,000 in attorney’s fees that had been awarded to the owner of the land in Biloxi that the Harrison County Utility Authority wanted for water lines for a sewage plant. It also sent the case back to the Harrison County Special Court of Eminent Domain for further proceedings consistent with the appeals court’s opinion.
After Katrina, the Harrison County Utility Authority used eminent domain as part of an ambitious plan to spend its share of $653 million in Department of Housing and Urban Development money to build several new wastewater and water plants. HUD’s Office of Inspector General recently questioned the need for the plants and what it considered unsupported population growth estimates used to justify the need for them.”
Associated Press. Mississippi Business Journal 16 January 2014.