Thousands of Orange County residents will begin receiving checks in the mail as a result of a $43.9 million legal settlement that compensates them for the destruction of their healthy citrus trees more than a decade ago.
The payouts, which will amount to about $700 per tree, are the product of litigation that began in 2005 after the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services destroyed more than 60,000 healthy trees in its efforts to eradicate a citrus canker disease. Two judgments, in 2014 and 2017, favored the plaintiffs and led the state legislature last year to approve the final payout to homeowners.
About 18,000 Orange County residents will receive checks as compensation for the destruction of their private property. Attorneys’ fees awarded from the $43.9 million settlement amount to $1.16 million, according to a Dec. 14 order outlining the distribution of funds.
““We’re delighted to finally distribute payments to nearly 18,000 Orange County homeowners whose private property was destroyed,” the homeowners’ lead counsel, Coral Gables attorney Robert Gilbert, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “While the legal journey was long and difficult, justice ultimately prevailed. The constitutional guaranty protecting private property was upheld.”
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services defended the department’s past efforts to battle citrus diseases in the state.
“The department’s actions were consistent with sound science and were in the best interest of Florida’s flagship citrus industry that was struggling to fight an invasive pest spreading and aggressive disease,” Erin Moffet said in an email to the Record. “The litigation was necessary to defend the state’s actions, including previous payments made to homeowners as part of the disease-eradication program.”
The department, however, worked with the legislature last summer to fulfill the judgment imposed by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court.
“We are pleased to see the funds being distributed to the homeowners,” Moffet said.
While it doesn’t harm humans, citrus canker is a bacterial infection that produces lesions on several parts of citrus trees, including the fruit, according to the department. The disease can render citrus trees unproductive and make the fruit too unsightly to be sold on the market. It is spread by wind and rain, as well as landscaping tools, the department reports.