Mud Lake flooding class action moves ahead, but with only Nalcor, not N.L. government, on the hook

A class-action lawsuit over the flooding of Mud Lakehas the legal green light to proceed, but against only one of the original claimants, asNewfoundland and Labrador's Court of Appeal has ruledresidents can seek damages only from Nalcor, not the provincial government.

The ruling, rendered Tuesday, freed the provincial government from the lawsuit. The legal battlestems from flooding in Mud Lake, a community on the Churchill River, just downstream from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, in2017.

The river overflowed its banks that springand by May 17 about 100 people were forced out of their homes, with some houses destroyed entirely. In the wake of that, residents launched the class-action lawsuit, which after Tuesday's ruling will go ahead only against Nalcor, which owns Muskrat Falls.

"There is no reasonable prospect of success in respect of claims of negligence and nuisance as against [the provincial government," the rendering reads. It goes on to say against Nalcor, however, "it cannot be said that the claim has no reasonable prospect of success."

That ruling is"a setback, but only a minor one," Halifax lawyer Ray Wagner, who's representingthe Mud Lake residents, told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning on Friday."There is some evidence to support that Nalcor is responsible for flooding. That's a huge first step."

Nalcor said otherwise in a statement to CBC. "The decision has no bearing on the merits of the claims being made," a spokesperson wrote in an email.

Nalcor declined an interview, but in the statement saidit and its lawyers at McInnes Cooper "are committed to diligently moving forward in this process but cannot provide further details on active legal proceeding."

The fact that Nalcor isprovincially owned wasn't addressed by the court, Wagnersaid, but boils down to technical quirks of the Canadian legal system.

An independent report released in October 2017 said natural causes were to blame for the flooding, but the findings have been disputed by residents and scientists.

'They want to get on with their lives'

The lawsuit doesn't put a dollar amount on damages sought by the residents. Wagner said it would vary from person to person depending on their losses, which include houses, personal property, as well as themore intangible tolls of post-traumatic stress disorder and suffering.

"They're modest claims, we would call them in class-action litigation," Wagner said."But they're not modest for the individuals. They're very importantfor them to have this resolved."

He said it would be unlikely the residents would want to appeal Tuesday's ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada to get the provincial government back into the lawsuit, as the casehas already dragged through several different appeal and legal processes.

"They want to get on with their lives," Wagner said.

• Mud Lake: In the wake of the flood

How long it will take to resolve the lawsuit is unknown, butWagner said most cases like this are settled after rulings like Tuesday'sbefore they ever get to the trial stage. He said he'd hoped for his clients' sake Nalcor would havesettled the suit instead of proceeding at continued legal expense.

"The resources spent defending, and putting up roadblocks, and fighting this tooth and nail against the residents who don't have a whole lot of means in many cases is really, quite frankly, troubling," he said.

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