Home Flooding Lawsuit Against MAXXAM/PL Returns to CA

This is the latest news from the ongoing Pacific Lumber (PL) Chapter 11 Bankruptcy trial being held in Corpus Christi, TX location chosen for the benefit of PL's parent holding corporation MAXXAM based in Houston, TX. The laid off PL workers, eco-activists, scientists and homeowners effected by the flooding from PL clearcuts (clearcuts => soil erosion => excess sediment load in rios => flooding) are all located in Humboldt County, CA and rendered voiceless by the location of this trial in TX..

Here's the article link;
http://eurekareporter.com/article/080201-agreement-paves-way-for-palco-flood-suit-to-come-back-to-county


"Agreement paves way for PALCO flood suit to come back to county"

By NATHAN RUSHTON, The Eureka Reporter

Published: Feb 1 2008, 10:31 PM · Updated: Feb 2 2008, 12:55 AM

A federal bankruptcy judge approved an agreement Friday between the
Pacific Lumber Co. and a creditors’ group that settles millions in
potential civil damages for $1.

Judge Richard Schmidt signed the agreement in a quick hearing Friday
morning, which has been well-received by PALCO attorneys and is viewed by
the claimant’s attorney as a way to get the case out of Texas and back on
track for a trial in Humboldt County.

The damage claims stem from three consolidated lawsuits filed in Humboldt
County Superior Court in 2002 and 2004 by 60 Freshwater Creek and Elk
River residents who live downstream of PALCO’s timberlands.

The residents were seeking approximately $100 million in claims against
PALCO and Scotia Pacific Co. from alleged damages from their logging
activities.

The agreement leaves the door open for the litigants to pursue the lawsuit
against PALCO parent company MAXXAM and its owner Charles Hurwitz, as well
as PALCO and SCOPAC’s insurers.

The flood claims lawsuit was scheduled to proceed to trial by November
this year, but was drawn into PALCO’s bankruptcy proceeding after the
company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas in January last year.

The previous federal bankruptcy court order that halted the flood claims
trial from proceeding was scheduled to be lifted Friday, but the a new
“stay” will remain until after a confirmation of the plan, or June first,
whichever comes first.

“We think that is a major improvement,” PALCO attorney Nathaniel Holzer
told the court, referring to the amended agreement.

Eureka attorney Bill Bertain, who represents the 60 claimants, said Friday
following the hearing that he was pleased with the outcome.

Bertain said the goal of the agreement he drafted with the help of the
Unsecured Creditors Committee was to avoid subjecting his clients to the
costly proceedings in Texas where the bankruptcy court would have
estimated the value of the cases and settled them with no money likely to
come from the bankrupt company.

“It will be better to pursue this in Humboldt County, rather than in
Texas,” Bertain said.

Frank Bacik, vice president and general counsel for PALCO, told The Eureka
Reporter previously that the company would have prevailed if the cases
against them went to trial."

This issue of homes flooding from excessive sediment load entering the region's rivers was of course predicted by hydrologists, activists and others who witnessed a tripled rate of logging and also clearcutting following the MAXXAM takeover of PL in the mid-eighties. Prior to the takeover by MAXXAM, PL was locally owned and usually allowed 50% of their trees to remain alive and intact in a cut after they performed a selective logging operation. This additional cover of trees prevented the severe soil erosion that occurred once MAXXAM increased the logging rate 3X and began the unsustainable practice of clearcutting (100% of trees removed in cut). It is also of interest that the CEO of MAXXAM Charles Hurwitz was previously involved in other corporate criminal activity and the tripled rates of clearcut logging by MAXXAM/PL and stolen PL worker pensions were used to pay off junk bond debts from other earlier misadventures. Had Hurwitz been properly investigated by the FDIC for his role in the collapse of the Texas Savings and Loan in the eighties, the ecological disaster wreaked in Humboldt by MAXXAM may have been prevented. Representative John Doolittle made certain that corporate criminal Hurwitz was not "harrassed" by the FDIC for his role in the Texas S&L collapse..

As of Thursday, Representative John Doolittle is planning on an early (not soon enough IMHO!!) retirement after ongoing FBI investigations into his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbyist scandal..

"Rep. John Doolittle to Retire"

By: Nicole Belle

Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 9:45 AM - PST

"Republican Rep. John Doolittle, who is under investigation in a congressional lobbying scandal, plans to announce Thursday that he’ll retire from Congress at the end of his current term, according to a Republican official who spoke with Doolittle.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a public announcement in Doolittle’s Northern California district.

The development comes as Doolittle, in his ninth term, faced growing political pressure from fellow Republicans who considered him a liability because of his involvement, along with his wife Julie, in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation. House Republicans, still smarting from losing control of Congress in 2006, are eager to put that ethics taint behind them."

article found @;
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/10/rep-john-doolittle-to-retire/

However, the Abramoff lobbyist is not the only scandal Doolittle was involved with, the "lesser" role he played in preventing an FDIC investigation of MAXXAM CEO Charles Hurwitz's role in the collapse of the Texas Savings and Loan (w/ Mike Milkin and Ivan Boesky) cannot be forgotten either. It is very likely had Doolittle not interfered with the FDIC investigation of Hurwitz during the Texas S&L scandal, the MAXXAM takeover of PL would not have occurred, or at least the damage done by PL under control of MAXXAM would not have gone on for so many years..

"Short-circuited an FDIC investigation into the primary owner of a failed S&L that cost taxpayers billions. After Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) dubbed a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) investigation into a savings & loan flop that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion “a form of harassment and deceit on the part of government employees,” Doolittle and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) went to work to scuttle the case. They used their power as members of the House Resources Committee to subpoena confidential FDIC records on the case, including details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Charles Hurwitz, a wealthy businessman who had held the largest interest in the failed S&L and from whom the government was seeking $300 million. Pombo and Doolittle then inserted the confidential information into the Congressional Record, which FDIC officials said damaged their ability to investigate the banker. The FDIC’s chief spokesman called the inclusion “a seamy abuse of the legislative process.” The case was dropped. Doolittle has refused to grant interview requests on the matter. [Los Angeles Times, 1/8/2006]
"

article found @;
http://www/cleanupwashington.org/hos/page.cfm?pageid=75

The initial article on the Doolittle/Hurwitz connection was found in the LA Times;

"A Donor Who Had Big Allies"

DeLay and two others helped put the brakes on a federal probe of a businessman. Evidence was published in the Congressional Record.

By Richard A. Serrano and Stephen Braun, Times Staff Writers

January 8, 2006

"WASHINGTON — In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions.

Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion.

The investigation was ultimately dropped.

The effort to help Hurwitz began in 1999 when DeLay wrote a letter to the chairman of the FDIC denouncing the investigation of Hurwitz as a "form of harassment and deceit on the part of government employees." When the FDIC persisted, Doolittle and Pombo — both considered proteges of DeLay — used their power as members of the House Resources Committee to subpoena the agency's confidential records on the case, including details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Hurwitz."

entire article found @;
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan-08,0,1764103.story?page=1

So given the extent of corruption found with the Doolittle/Delay/Abramoff/Hurwitz connection, why then is MAXXAM CEO Hurwitz not being reinvestigated by the FDIC for his involvement in the Texas S&L scandal? It appears that the current Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Pacific Lumber is a direct result of decades of mismanagement by parent holding corporation MAXXAM. Criminal cases often find patterns of behavior to be relevant for trial, so why not re-examine the earlier TX S&L crimes of CEO Hurwitz that resulted in the MAXXAM takeover of PL, especially when MAXXAM tripled rates of logging and clearcutting contributed greatly to the current bankruptcy of PL??

What about Doolittle interfering with the FDIC investigation of Hurwitz for his role in the Texas S&L collapse? If anyone in the community blocked a police investigation of a local drug dealer, they would certainly be at the least held in contempt of court and charged with interfering in a police investigation. However, the blocking of the FDIC investigation by Doolittle is simply ignored by the courts, and the criminal MAXXAM CEO Hurwitz is allowed to conduct business as usual, despite the obvious harm MAXXAM has caused in Humboldt County following their takeover of PL. One wonders why people in the U.S. have become cynical in ever attaining justice when corporations commit crimes..

BTW, MAXXAM/PL clearcutting continues, and treesitters need constant and consistent support from the community in defending the last remaining old growth redwoods not yet taken by MAXXAM/PL clearcuts..

some contacts for forest defense;

http://mattolewild.blogspot.com/

http://humboldtforestdefense.blogspot.com/