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"Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - A Florida jury has ordered the state to pay $11.5 million as compensation to 58,225 residents of Broward County after the state cut down all the citrus trees in their yards as part of a disease-prevention plan.<br /><br />The award, which amounts to $86 per tree, was significantly lower than attorneys for the South Florida homeowners has sought. <br /><br />The homeowners had asked for compensation ranging from $280 for a healthy six-foot tree to $930 for a healthy 10-foot tree. <br /><br />Robert Gilbert, the homeowners' attorney, estimated the eradicated trees were worth $350 to $400 apiece, or a maximum of about $50 million.<br /><br />Authorities in Broward County cut down 133,720 trees in an effort to insulate the state's commercial citrus industry from an outbreak of citrus canker disease. <br /><br />Broward County Circuit Judge Ronald Rothschild previously ruled that the homeowners were entitled to \"full compensation\" for destruction of their trees.  <br /><br />The judge left it to the jury to decide how much compensation they should receive.<br /><br />After two days of deliberations the 12-member jury decided on the $11.5 million compromise verdict. <br /><br />The case is the first of five class-action lawsuits in the Sunshine State seeking compensation for more than 577,000 residential citrus trees destroyed in the state's citrus canker eradication program. <br /><br />The other cases are pending in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Lee, and Orange Counties. <br /><br /><i> From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo by e-mail at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com. </i><br />"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510518985-jury-gives-11-5-million-to-homeowners-whose-trees-were-cut-down>