U.S. District Court Judge, Jay Zainey dismissed wrongful death claims on Tuesday in a lawsuit against the federal government brought by three families who lost loved ones after Hurricane Katrina. One of the deceased, Ethel Mayo Freeman, died in her wheelchair while waiting for help outside the New Orleans convention center. Her son, Herbert Freeman, Jr., sued the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, and the previous director of FEMA, Michael Brown, claiming the government’s negligence caused his mother’s death.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held that although the government has offered public admissions of mistakes made before and after Katrina, it would be speculation to state that such mistakes caused these specific deaths. The court did not rule on all the claims included in the lawsuit.
