St. Martin Parish wants Lafayette’s spoil banks lawsuit thrown out for being in Lafayette

Andrew Capps, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
·3 min read

St. Martin Parish is asking a Lafayette judge to dismiss Lafayette Consolidated Government’s lawsuit over the Vermilion River spoil banks because it was not filed in a St. Martin Parish court.

LCG filed suit against St. Martin Parish and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March to have a judge declare its covert removal of spoil banks separating the Vermilion River from the Bayou Tortue swamp near Cypress Island legally sound.

Lawsuit: Lafayette sues St. Martin, Corps of Engineers over Vermilion River spoil banks removal

After months of back and forth over its efforts to remove the spoil banks, LCG quietly purchased part of the land in St. Martin Parish where the makeshift dirt levees stand and removed about 1,200 feet of the nearly 4,000-foot long spoil banks in February.

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St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars called the move “surreptitious” and made plans to sue LCG over the removal, which violated a St. Martin Parish ordinance requiring a local permit to alter any levee structures within the parish.

But LCG beat Cedars and the St. Martin Parish Council to the punch, filing a lawsuit in Lafayette on March 24 to have a judge throw out the St. Martin Parish ordinance and declare that LCG was within its rights to remove spoil banks.

Parish President Chester Cedars speaks during a meeting of the St. Martin Parish Council on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Parish President Chester Cedars speaks during a meeting of the St. Martin Parish Council on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

Fifteenth Judicial District Judge Valerie Gotch-Garrett is presiding over the case and St. Martin Parish’s request to have it dismissed on the grounds that it should have been filed in the 16th Judicial District, which covers St. Martin, St. Mary and Iberia parishes.

St. Martin Parish is arguing the case should be thrown out because the action that prompted the lawsuit -- the removal of the spoil banks -- occurred in St. Martin Parish.

“(The) venue for determining the legality of the spoil bank destruction in St. Martin Parish is where the ‘spoil bank project’ occurred - St. Martin Parish. Accordingly, LCG’s lawsuit in the improper venue of Lafayette Parish should be dismissed,” St. Martin Parish argued in its court filing.

Spoil banks: Lafayette, St. Martin Parish levee feud escalates, lawsuit possible

Before LCG beat St. Martin Parish to court, Cedars said he intended to launch the lawsuit in St. Martin Parish, but LCG’s quick action preempted that plan, putting the case before a Lafayette judge.

St. Martin Parish is asking that judge to dismiss LCG’s lawsuit not just over the location dispute, but also because it claims LCG has not shown any proof that its removal of the spoil banks “complied with all lawful regulations, ordinances, rules, procedures and laws,” as LCG claims in its request for a judge to declare the same.

One particular sticking point in the lawsuit will be whether a St. Martin Parish ordinance that requires a local permit to alter any levee structures is constitutional, as LCG argued it should be thrown out.

Lidar elevation imaging shows the Cypress Island spoil banks just east of the Lafayette Regional Airport that isolate the Vermilion River from the low-lying land in the Bayou Tortue Swamp before a 1,200-foot portion of the roughly 4,000-foot makeshift dirt levee was removed by Lafayette Consolidated Government in February.
Lidar elevation imaging shows the Cypress Island spoil banks just east of the Lafayette Regional Airport that isolate the Vermilion River from the low-lying land in the Bayou Tortue Swamp before a 1,200-foot portion of the roughly 4,000-foot makeshift dirt levee was removed by Lafayette Consolidated Government in February.

St. Martin Parish argued that regardless of whether the ordinance passes muster, LCG had no right to violate it without first challenging the ordinance in court and having it tossed by a judge, which it did not do.

What are spoil banks: And why are Lafayette and St. Martin Parish fighting over them?

“LCG does not allege it challenged the ordinance in any court prior to February of 2022 when ‘Lafayette Parish finally executed on this spoil bank project’ in a willful, complete utter, arrogant and intentional disregard of the St. Martin Parish ordinance,” St. Martin Parish attorneys wrote.

“Inasmuch as the ordinance had not been stricken down by any court - or otherwise declared ‘unconstitutional and not enforceable’ - the St. Martin Parish ordinance was legal and enforceable at the time LCG destroyed the spoil bank in St. Martin Parish.”

A date has not yet been set for the case’s first hearing before Gotch-Garrett in Lafayette.

Follow Andrew Capps on Twitter or send an email to acapps@theadvertiser.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: St. Martin Parish wants Lafayette’s spoil banks lawsuit thrown out

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