Adam Putnam, Florida's leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, is facing a court order to pay millions in damages to 12,000 southwest Florida homeowners whose citrus trees were taken and destroyed under the state's citrus canker eradication program, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
If Putnam, the state's agriculture commissioner, does not pay the plaintiffs in Lee County, Florida, Circuit Court Judge Keith Kyle said the homeowners can make Putnam make a list of state assets he must sell to pay the damages and legal fees that now stand at almost $17 million after 15 years of litigation, the Times reported.
"Commissioner Putnam essentially has done absolutely nothing to attempt to secure payment for the (homeowners) because he apparently has no obligation to do so, despite the finality of the instant judgments," Kyle wrote in a March 20 order, according to the newspaper.
Putnam did not respond to the Times for comment and his spokeswoman Jennifer Meale told the newspaper that the office was "reviewing the ruling."
Kyle called Putnam's past comments that the Florida Supreme Court should review "wildly different amounts" awarded by courts "inaccurate, misleading, and contrary to the oath (Putnam) took" under Florida's Constitution, the Times said.
The state took and destroyed 34,000 healthy citrus trees in Lee County between 2000 and 2006 and a jury ruled for the homeowners four years ago, the Tampa Bay Times wrote. Since the ruling, no payment has been made, per the newspaper.
The News-Press reported that the state's Second District Court of Appeals in Tampa rejected the agriculture department's appeal of that verdict in early 2016.
Scott, though, let stand a legislature-passed appropriations this year that covered similar lawsuits in Broward and Palm Beach counties, the News-Press reported.
"Why has this constitutional takings judgment awarded in favor of (the Lee County homeowners), by a jury of their peers no less and affirmed on appeal, not been paid – particularly when the Constitution of the State of Florida expressly guarantees the fundamental right of aggrieved citizens to receive full and fair compensation for property the State seizes without legal justification?" Kyle argued in his March 20 order, per the News-Press.
The Tampa Bay Times wrote that the legislature last year appropriated $16.4 million to pay the Lee County homeowners and $21 million to pay Broward homeowners as part of the settlement, but Scott vetoed the money, citing "ongoing litigation."
Kyle wrote that Scott's explanation was inaccurate, the Times reported.
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