Earth First Fined $1 Million in Idaho
11/8/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Subject: EF! Fined $1million in Idaho
Date: 8 Nov 1996 19:18:59 GMT
Organization: Rainforest Action Network
Sender: rainforest@igc.apc.org
November 8, 1996
Environmentalists Ordered to Pay $1 Million in Idaho
Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company
BOISE, Idaho -- A state court jury has ordered 12 members of the
environmental group Earth First! to pay $1.15 million in damages to a
contractor for damaged equipment and work delays as the result of protests
in the virgin forests of northern Idaho.
The jury of eight women and four men awarded the plaintiff, Highland
Enterprises of Grangeville, Idaho, about $150,000 in compensatory damages
and $1 million in punitive damages in the civil case. The verdict was
reached last week in a district court in Grangeville, about 250 north of
Boise, in Idaho County.
The defendants will be required to share the cost of the punitive damages
by paying $83,333 each, court officials said, while compensatory damages
were spread among the defendants in different amounts.
Bernard Zahela, a Boise lawyer who represented 11 of the 12 defendants,
said he would file a motion for a new trial because the Idaho County jury
was too sympathetic to the contractor. Timber is one of the dominant
industries in the densely forested county.
Zahela also contends that the plaintiff did not present enough evidence to
link the defendants with any of the damage to the equipment.
"There was an absolute failure to connect the two," he said. "The rest was
guilt by association."
Leslie Hemstreet, 31, co-editor of The Earth First! Journal in Eugene,
Ore., said of the decision: "The magnitude is so huge I can't even conceive
of it. But you can't squeeze blood out of a bee."
Most of the defendants do not have jobs and will have trouble making any
payments, Ms. Hemstreet said.
Don Blewett, owner of Highland Enterprises, said he expected to see some
payment over time because the jury's award -- if upheld -- would remain in
effect for the defendants' lifetimes.
"If their Great-Aunt Matilda buys a Volkswagen van and she dies and gives
it to one of them, that baby's mine," Blewett said.
Highland filed the lawsuit in late 1993 after three pieces of heavy
equipment sustained total damages put at $20,000 by the company. Blewett
sought $197,000 from each defendant for equipment damage and a monthlong
delay caused by protests. He also sought $1 million each in punitive
damages.
Karen Pickett, 46, of Canyon, Calif., a defendant in the case and a long-
time Earth First! organizer, said the lawsuit was not about collecting
money.
"There's no doubt that this sort of thing has a chilling effect," Ms.
Pickett said. "The idea is to use the lawsuit to intimidate and discourage
people from protesting."
Similar lawsuits have been filed by timber interests against Earth First!
protesters for damage to equipment or work delays at logging sites in
southern Oregon, northern California and British Columbia, Canada.
But Ms. Pickett said her group's protests in the 78,000-acre Cove-Mallard
primitive area in the Nez Perce National Forest in northern Idaho would
continue "as long as they're roading and logging in the wilderness."
"This is the biggest roadless area in the lower 48," she said. "We're there
for the long term."
Highland Enterprises continues to build roads in the logging area. So far,
27 miles of roads have been built and 7 million board feet of timber cut,
enough for about 700 houses.