Effects of the deadly tornado that hit St. Louis earlier this month are raising legal questions for people impacted by the disaster, from negotiating with insurance companies and landlords to obtaining federal aid.
There are also potential legal implications in the city’s failure to sound its tornado siren as the storm crashed into St. Louis on May 16. The apparent breakdown in communication between city departments has led to an internal investigation and the suspension of the commissioner who oversees the city’s emergency management agency.
But people impacted by the tornado might have a difficult time suing the city over the siren failure, said Brenda Talent, an attorney and CEO of the Show-Me Institute.
“You have to overcome the whole theory of sovereign immunity,” she noted, referring to the legal doctrine that broadly protects governments from lawsuits. “The question is, can you carve out one of those exceptions to say that they assumed a duty, they were negligent in that duty, and, because of their failure … the injury resulted directly from that? It's a pretty big hurdle to overcome.”
Jim Wyrsch, a former public defender now in private practice as a founding partner at the law firm Khazaeli Wyrsch, agreed that plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the siren would be unlikely to prevail.
“I think there are other things you could potentially look at,” he said, noting as example the case of a man who was killed by a falling tree during the storm.
“There was recently a lawsuit against the city over its failure to maintain trees, and the city was hit with a verdict on that for over a million dollars,” Wyrsch said. “There's definitely a waiver of sovereign immunity on that issue, for creating a dangerous condition that they knew about.”
Even that scenario could be difficult to mount a lawsuit around. But damage from a fallen tree presents a stronger case than litigation aimed at the city’s tornado siren failure, said attorney Nicole Gorovsky.
“If they knew [about the tree] and didn't do anything about it, or if even they did something to it that made it that way … that could be considered a dangerous condition of property, and that could be a more interesting case,” she said.
The case was one of several taken up by a panel of expert attorneys on the May edition of the Legal Roundtable on “St. Louis on the Air.” Talent, Wyrsch and Gorovsky also discussed the Missouri Supreme Court’s recent ruling that revived the state’s ban on abortion and how a local asphalt company won a $109 million victory in court over defective parking lots.
To hear the full conversation with attorneys Brenda Talent, Jim Wyrsch and Nicole Gorovsky, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
