Skanska faces 1st of many barge damage trials; this one over destroyed Pensacola oyster farm
Three years after Hurricane Sally ripped more than two dozen Skanska barges loose from their moorings and scattered them across Pensacola Bay, the first direct lawsuit against Skanska is set to begin jury selection on Monday.
It's the first case to move to trial since the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Skanska the ability to limit its liability for damages to the value of the barges under an obscure 19th-century maritime law.
The DeLuna Oyster Company is suing Skanska, alleging two Skanska barges plowed through the company's oyster farm in the waters near Bay Bluff Park.
DeLuna Oyster company was founded by Travis Gill in 2017, who invested his life savings into the one-man business.
DeLuna Oyster company filed its lawsuit in December 2020. Still, the case was delayed with more than 1,000 other lawsuits by property owners, businesses and commuters who allege they either suffered direct damage from the barges or suffered economic damages from the closure of the Pensacola Bay Bridge for eight months after Hurricane Sally.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a federal court decision that found Skanska was negligent in its preparations leading up to Hurricane Sally and could not use maritime law to limit its liability.
An economic analysis commissioned by Gill's attorney for the lawsuit alleges that the barge destroying most of his oyster cages during the storm cost the oyster company more than $1.2 million since 2020.
In the days following Hurricane Sally, the News Journal went with Gill to the site of his farm and photographed the barge surrounded by damaged oyster cages.
Related: Pensacola oyster farmer says Skanska barge smashed through farm, ruined 800,000 oysters
"(The morning after the storm) I went out to the farm to look and noticed all my gear was gone," Gill told the News Journal in September 2020. "There were only four damaged cages left. I was just trying to figure out what happened to them, and I found them on shore near barges all smashed up and destroyed."
Skanska denies it is liable for the damages and has put forward several defenses in the case in a court filing in September, including that the oyster cages were not adequately secured for the severe weather and that DeLuna Oyster Company had never shown a profit.
Skanska also attempted to get the case dismissed in August, arguing that a Florida case from 1912 preventing oyster farmers from suing over damage to natural oyster beds caused by industrial pollution applied to this case and that DeLuna Oyster Company was not authorized to farm oysters at that location as the lease with the state was under Gill's name. Those arguments failed to convince the judge, who denied the motion to dismiss.
Since the judge set the case for trial, a flurry of court filings has hit the court docket, making arguments about potential expert witnesses as both sides jockey to put themselves in the best position for the trial.
Jury selection will begin Monday at 8:30 a.m., and the trial is expected to last two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Skanska USA on trial for Pensacola DeLuna Oyster Company damages
