LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A federal court awarded more than $10 million in damages plus interest to three farms four years ago for repeated floods in the Missouri River basin, and those farms are now asking a federal court to order payment.
In early February 2021, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims awarded St. Joseph, Missouri, farmer Roger Ideker about $6 million for a flowage easement and repairs to a levee. Two other plaintiffs were awarded a total of about $4.2 million. The court found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for much of the flooding that has occurred during the past decade.
On Dec. 14, 2020, the claims court ruled the repeated flooding led to the taking of permanent flowage easements along the river. The court also ruled Corps of Engineers changes to the management of the basin led to repeated flooding from 2007 to 2014.
At the end of February, the three farms told the court in a filing that even though a variety of appeals were ongoing, the federal government still owes the money.
"Plaintiffs have shouldered significant burdens, costs and personal sacrifice from the many years of litigating this case over the past two decades, from 2014 to 2025, which included two lengthy trials and an appeal," the farms said in a court document.
"Plaintiffs and plaintiffs' counsel have done so without obtaining any payment whatsoever. It is long overdue for the government to now pay the affirmed judgment."
Repeated flooding led to significant damage to farms, including lost infrastructure, damaged farm ground, lost crops and future land usage.
Through it all, the Corps of Engineers maintained it had been following its master manual.
On June 16, 2023, a federal appeals court vacated the trial court's denial of crop damages and a finding that the federal government did not cause the Missouri River flooding in 2011.
As a result, the federal government has argued that the judgement for the three farms was vacated as well.
"At best, the government's argument is misguided and wrong, conveniently ignoring that the federal circuit did not vacate judgment for the plaintiffs," the farms said in a court filing on Feb. 28, 2025.
"The opposite occurred. At the end of the federal circuit's opinion, it affirmed the judgment. The federal circuit affirmed the judgment because it affirmed this court's findings and damages awards to the three bellwether plaintiffs on their claims for a permanent flowage easement and for the repair cost to the Ideker levee in 2010."
Paying the farmers now, they said in the court filing, would help the federal government save money.
"This is fair to both sides because plaintiffs will avoid being further harmed by any continued delay in obtaining just compensation, and the government will avoid incurring any further interest that is accruing on the affirmed judgment," the farmers said.
The federal government now owes the farms about $12.2 million when interest is added.
In 2018, the court ruled the Corps of Engineers was responsible for recurring floods that severely damaged Ideker's farm -- for several years post-2004, except 2011 -- and on March 11, 2019, the court moved to the compensation portion of the case. Ideker's farm was again underwater in 2019 as a result of the heavy flooding in the basin.
Ideker and hundreds of other basin farmers have been working to return large chunks of land buried in sand to production while holding out for a successful court case.
The court ruled changes made to the flood manual by the Corps of Engineers led to unprecedented releases from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota following heavy spring rains and snowmelt in Montana in 2011. The Corps released large volumes of water from that dam in 2011, and all the levees along Ideker's farm were destroyed.
The 2011 flood caused an estimated $2 billion in damage in several states. The Corps of Engineers had to make unprecedented water releases from northern dams, flooding farms and communities in the lower basin and bringing into question whether the Corps handled the situation correctly.
Many landowners downstream blamed the Corps of Engineers' water release for exacerbating the flood. A task force later found the Corps did all it could to manage the water.
The court ruled in 2018 that in five of the six years in question dating back to 2007, the Corps of Engineers violated the Fifth Amendment by not compensating farmers for flood-damaged land. The court disallowed flood claims from 2011.
The court ruled in 2018 the Corps of Engineers deprioritized flood control in 2004. In 2004, the Corps of Engineers instituted the Missouri River recovery program to accelerate changes to the river to enhance wildlife habitats.
Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com
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