Coates v. United States

HOWELL, Judge.

Plaintiffs’ petition alleges that the defendant in the course of improving the navigability of the Missouri River in the area between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, built certain, structures and made improvements, the effect of which was, from the year 1945 on, to change the character, course, and rate of flow of the river in such a way as to cause erosion of plaintiffs’ farm land and deposit thereon of a heavy layer of sand which resulted in permanent destruction of the productivity of the land. The plaintiffs ask damages in the amount of $179,540.04. Of this sum,…