A federal judge today cleared the way for a trial of the "largest ever" litigation involving the U.S. government by denying the Justice Department's last-ditch attempt to dismiss a damages lawsuit brought by victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood J. Duval, Jr. means that Katrina victims seeking just compensation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the flooding and destruction of their homes will get their day in court.

"We are pleased to have overcome this final hurdle to securing the first trial for Katrina victims and to holding the Army Corps accountable," said Pierce O'Donnell, the plaintiffs' lead trial counsel in the nearly three-year-old case. "Battling the federal government with its own army of lawyers and unlimited resources has been a daunting ordeal."

The historic trial on behalf of six plaintiffs whose homes and businesses in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish were totally destroyed in 2005 is scheduled to begin on April 20 before Judge Duval. The plaintiffs claim the Corps of Engineers should be held liable for failed levees in 50 locations that caused catastrophic flooding and devastated a 100-square-mile metropolitan area. Expected to last about three weeks, the non-jury trial will feature testimony from high-ranking Army Corps officials and some of the world's most renowned experts on coastal flood protection.

"Justice for Katrina victims is long overdue and now in sight," said Joseph Bruno of New Orleans, the Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel. "A favorable ruling in our test case will pave the way for more than 400,000 other deserving victims to recover damages."

The lawsuit, filed in April 2006, focuses on the major role of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet ("MR-GO") in increasing storm surge and wave attacks that overwhelmed Army Corps' levees designed to protect St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans East, and the Lower 9th Ward where the plaintiffs lived. Constructed in the 1960s, the MR-GO is a now defunct, 76-mile ship channel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans. For a half century, experts, environmentalists and federal, state and local officials warned the Army Corps that the MR-GO was, in effect, a "Hurricane Highway" that would cause catastrophic flooding to the heart of metropolitan New Orleans.

The denial of the motion for summary judgment on sovereign immunity grounds marked the government's fourth unsuccessful effort to avoid trial. The latest efforts by the government delayed the opening of the trial from last September until this April.

In today's ruling, Judge Duval rejected the Army Corps' argument that it had unlimited discretion to build and operate the MR-GO, including neglecting to remediate a pattern of long-known safety defects that posed a serious risk of devastating flooding during hurricanes.

The opinion in Robinson v. United States can be obtained at www.katrinajustice.com and www.jbrunolaw.com .

"We will prove at trial that the tragic destruction of New Orleans was foreseen and preventable by the Army Corps," said John Andry, a St. Bernard Parish native and one of the plaintiffs' trial counsel. "The world will see that the Army Corps of Engineers was guilty of gross dereliction of duty that killed 1,600 people, destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, and caused hundreds of billions of dollars of property damage."

Plaintiffs are represented by a consortium of 20 law firms from California, Florida and Louisiana that feature some of the top trial attorneys in the country, including Joseph Cotchett (San Francisco), Thomas Girardi (Los Angeles), James Roy (Lafayette), and Jerry McKernan (Baton Rouge).

The Robinson case and a pending related MR-GO class action are the only surviving lawsuits on behalf of Katrina victims. Class action lawsuits by Katrina victims against insurance companies for flood coverage were dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2007. Last year, Judge Duval also dismissed on immunity grounds another class action on behalf of New Orleans residents against the Army Corps over the failure of the 17th Avenue and London Avenue Canal levees.

The 400,000 Katrina claimants include homeowners, residents, businesses, schools, universities, hospitals, churches and synagogues as well as the public utility Entergy, State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

According to a recent Justice Department filing, the U.S. government has produced so much information-digital and paper--in connection with the case that, "on the basis of this production, the litigation can be described as the largest ever in which the United States has been involved."

"Before and after his election, President Obama promised that he would make rebuilding New Orleans a top priority," said O'Donnell, a Los Angeles-based trial lawyer. "We are looking to the White House for leadership in expeditiously resolving the claims of Katrina victims in a fair and equitable manner. The continued stonewalling of Katrina victims is a national disgrace."

The Department of the Army, in a public disclosure last year, estimated the federal government's potential losses on Katrina-related litigation and administrative claims ranged from $10 billion to $100 billion.