[FoCHAT] CHAT Co-Chairman Frank Silvestri in the news today

Thu May 3 06:04:28 PDT 2007

Here are links to two entries in the Times-Picayune that come from the work of CHAT Co-Chairman Frank Silvestri. Frank is a lawyer from Gentilly but working in a beautiful historic building near the beginning of Canal St. He is the one who brought over 100,000 RHP applicants the right continue or start a dispute resolution or appeal after receiving a low-balled award at closing. In other words, awards are tendered, or as the Road Home Program (RHP) states, applicants can apply for a second closing if they have evidence of mistakes in their award calculations or pre-storm value. 

  Frank is also the CHAT member who thought of the RHP report card, which got so much media attention, and the Bill of Road Home Rights, which should shortly be adopted by the LRA Board as a benchmark or gold standard for how the RHP should function and which was endorsed by four LA parish councils. His numerous eloquent emails to RHP officials and other incisive efforts for all of us in devastated areas of Lousiana have been critical in the fight for our rights.

  In his professional life, as you can see from one of today's Times-Picayune articles, he is plaintiff's attorney specializing in serious injury or wrongful death cases:  Silvestri & Massicot, Attorneys at Law,  3914 Canal St New Orleans, LA 70119-6050; Ph. 482-3400. 

  He was the lawyer for one of the most important cases of government negligence during Hurricane Katrina. As he told me in an email in which I asked about the follow-up to this case, "We have a long tough appeal to the US Fifth Circuit to try to reverse this - fat chance, but one of those fights over a principle that need to be made." This is the kind of person, whom the 131,000 RHP applicants have been so fortunate to have on their side, pro bono. Please remember that when CHAT calls on you.  

  http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1178174476268250.xml&coll=1

  Promises broken
  Thursday, May 03, 2007
  Re: "Road Home going broke, Blanco aide says," Page 1, May 2. 

  Any attentive grade schooler with a calculator could have told you that a shortfall in Road Home grant money was coming since when the real numbers began to emerge in December. 

  Should we be encouraged by the statement attributed to Taylor Beery, policy director for President Bush's Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, who said his boss stands ready to help the state get more money for Road Home if it can show a demonstrable need? 

  Only if you were foolish enough to buy into that earlier promise of help from the president that he would do all it took to help us get back on our feet. 

  The only way this administration is going to do any more for this state is if the Louisiana congressional delegation gets its act together and sponsors the legislation needed to add money to the program. 

  Then look out for a veto from the man in the White House. 

  Demonstrable need, indeed. What are they waiting for, another flood? 

  Frank A. Silvestri 

  New Orleans

  http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/library-124/1178174311268250.xml&coll=1
  Katrina death claims dismissed
  Judge says U.S. law shields government from liability 
  Thursday, May 03, 2007
  By Gwen Filosa
  Staff writer 
  A federal judge has sided with the government in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by families of three people who died in the immediate, desperate days after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures when the New Orleans region was stranded without proper emergency services. 

  Ethel Mayo Freeman, 91, died in her wheelchair Sept. 1, 2005, while waiting in the sweltering heat outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for help to arrive in New Orleans. 

  Her son and caretaker, Herbert Freeman Jr., sued the United States government, including Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and then-FEMA director Michael Brown, for causing her death by negligence. 

  But the lawsuit, however heartbreaking, can't continue, U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey recently ruled. 

  "One might contend that the federal decisions made in conjunction with Hurricane Katrina demonstrated nonchalance and/or incompetence on the part of those involved," Zainey wrote, in a 23-page decision issued Saturday and filed at court Tuesday. 

  "The government has publicly admitted that it made many mistakes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One can only speculate at this point whether these mistakes caused the tragic deaths of the decedents." 

  The federal lawsuit is technically still alive, although Zainey dealt the plaintiffs a substantial blow with the ruling. 

  "There are claims the court has not ruled on yet," said attorney Frank Silvestri, of Silvestri and Massicot. "We intend to press on." 

  Freeman's claims that the judge dismissed were against the nation's government, along with Chertoff, Brown and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in their "official capacity." 

  The slim lawsuit details the final moments of Freeman, who arrived at the Convention Center with some 3,000 people who waited in vain for at least five days before buses and help arrived. 

  "No triage, food, water or medical assistance was provided," Silvestri's firm wrote. "Mr. Freeman's repeated requests for medical help for his mother fell on deaf ears. . . . . He was told a bus was coming to take her where her medical needs could be met. No bus ever came." 

  The elderly woman's body, which contained a pacemaker and a feeding tube, gave out Sept. 1 as she and tens of thousands of others languished in the New Orleans heat with little or nothing in their hands. 

  The courts combined other lawsuits against the government with the Freeman claim: 

  John J. DeLuca, 77, who rode out Katrina at an eastern New Orleans assisted-living home, died Sept. 3 after a helicopter rescue team took him from the home to Interstate 10 at the interchange with Causeway Boulevard. DeLuca languished for three days before dying, court records said. 

  Clementine Eleby, 79, paralyzed and bedridden in eastern New Orleans when the storm struck, died outside the Convention Center on Sept. 1 while waiting for help. 

  Silvestri's firm, of New Orleans, represents all three families. 

  Freeman's lawsuit assails the "National Response Plan" that federal agencies were supposed to follow in the event of a natural disaster. 

  "There ought to be some accountability and some responsibility when people were in danger," said Silvestri on Thursday. 

  Freeman on April 24 filed a second lawsuit against the United States, citing the same claims on behalf of his mother. 

  But Judge Zainey, in the recent ruling, said the government has protection from such lawsuits. 

  "This court is very sympathetic to the plaintiffs for the loss of their loved ones, however, this court is prohibited from changing the laws that Congress has enacted," Zainey wrote. "As such, the court lacks the authority to award money damages for the claims in which the plaintiffs are not legally entitled." 

  . . . . . . . 

  Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3304. 

   Melanie Ehrlich
  Proud to be CHAT Co-Chairman with Frank Silvestri

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