The New York Times
Denver Post, FRI1 ED, P A-03
Friday, November 8, 1996
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 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 miles 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, 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 damage estimated 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 longtime Earth First! organizer, said the lawsuit was not about collecting money.
"There's no doubt that this sort of thing has a chilling effect," 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.
But Pickett said the protests in the 78,000-acre Cove-Mallard 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.
Copyright © 1996 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.
Edmonton Journal, Final ED, P B14
November 09, 1996
The owner of road building equipment that was wrecked in central Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest has won more than $1 million in damages from 12 Earth First! environmental activists he accused of vandalism. Although Highland Enterprises owner Don Blewett may never see any of the money, he said the verdict was worth the effort of the two-week civil trial.
"If it does nothing but deter them from coming up there and causing us trouble again, it's worth it," Blewett said. The jury sided with Blewett for losses during the 1993 protest of the Cove-Mallard timber sale area.
Copyright © 1996 Edmonton Journal.
Atlanta Journal (AJ) - Friday, November 8, 1996
Section: NATIONAL NEWS Page: A17
The owner of road building equipment that was wrecked in central Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest has won more than $1 million in damages from 12 Earth First! environmental activists he accused of vandalism.
Although Highland Enterprises owner Don Blewett may never see any of the money, he said the verdict was worth the effort of the two-week civil trial "if it does nothing but deter them from coming up there and causing us trouble again, it's worth it."
The jury sided with Blewett for losses during the 1993 protest of the Cove-Mallard timber sale area. Jurors awarded Blewett $150,000 in compensatory damages and $999,999 in punitive damages.
Copyright © 1996 Atlanta Newspapers Inc.
Credits: New York Times;
Houston Chronicle, 3 STAR ED, P 13
Friday, November 8, 1996
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 from protests in northern Idaho's forests.
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 payments, 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 and an Earth First! organizer, said: "There's no doubt that this sort of thing has a chilling effect. 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.
But Pickett said her group's protests in the 78,000-acre Cove-Mallard 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.
Copyright © 1996 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved.
DATELINE: GRANGEVILLE, Idaho
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DATE: November 08, 1996 02:38 EST
The owner of road building equipment that was wrecked in central Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest has won more than $1 million in damages from 12 Earth First! environmental activists he accused of vandalism.
Although Highland Enterprises owner Don Blewett may never see any of the money, he said the verdict was worth the effort of the two-week civil trial.
"If it does nothing but deter them from coming up there and causing us trouble again, it's worth it," Blewett said.
The jury sided with Blewett for losses during the 1993 protest of the Cove-Mallard timber sale area.
Jurors awarded Blewett $150,000 in compensatory damages and $999,999 in punitive damages.
"I'm disappointed in the jury verdict, but not surprised," defense attorney Bernard Zaleha said after the October 30 decision. "The excessiveness of the verdict makes it clear this jury passionately desires timber to be the dominant industry in this area."
The activists were never criminally charged with vandalism of Highland's equipment.
Copyright © 1996 the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The New York Times
News Tribune (Tacoma), P B3
November 08, 1996
BOISE - An Idaho 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. 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, 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," 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. But 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.
Oregonian (PO) - THURSDAY, November 7, 1996
By: STEPHEN STUEBNER - Special Writer, The Oregonian
Edition: SUNRISE Section: COAST ZONER Page: D04
GRANGEVILLE, Idaho - Summary: An Idaho County jury awards a logging road builder $150,000 and $1 million in damages from a 1993 logging protest.
An Idaho County jury has assessed $1.15 million in damages against 12 Earth First protesters in a civil case related to Cove-Mallard logging protests in 1993.
The eight-woman, four-man jury awarded the plaintiff, Highland Enterprises of Grangeville, a logging road builder, about $150,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
All 12 defendants will share the cost of paying off of the punitive damages by paying $83,333 apiece,, court officials said. Compensatory damages were spread among the defendants in different amounts.
The damages maybe one of the largest awards against Earth First protesters since the group emerged in the late 1970s.
Because each defendant was not ordered to pay $1 million, each, University of Idaho law Pofessor Ken Gallant said, "It strikes me that it's not necessarily a smashing victory for the plaintiff". Gallent was a co-defender of one protester and vowed to appeal the case.
Don Blewett, owner of Highland Enterprises, said he's pleased with the jury's verdict.
"I was happy," he said. "Hopefully they're going to lose some interest (in Cove-Mallard) because they know now that I won't back off," he said.
Blewett said he requested $197,000 against each of the 12 defendants for causing an estimated$20,000 damage to three pieces of heavy equipment -- a D-8 cat, a skidder and an excavator -- and the balance for a 30-day delay the caused by protests caused. Punitive damages were requested because of the emotional toll that protests had on loggers and Blewett's employees, he said.
"Both sides of the case presented testimony that they were scared to death that someone would be seriously injured or killed up there," he said. "In comparison to that kind of threat, $1 million is nothing."
Gallant said the jury should not have awarded any damages against the protesters because the plaintiffs did not offer enough evidence to link his client or others to the damage.
Gallant said he expects a higher court will reverse the case. Blewett's attorney had no comment.
Followers of Earth First have protested clear-cutting and road-building each summer since 1992 in the 78,000-acre Cove-Mallard area near Dixie, Idaho, each summer, with varying amounts of civil disobedience, since 1992. A number of the same defendants in the civil case have been convicted of minor criminal offenses.
Copyright © 1996, The Oregonian Publishing Company.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER (SP) - FRIDAY, November 8, 1996
By: THE NEW YORK TIMES
Edition: Final Section: News Page: A3
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 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 miles 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, 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 damage 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 longtime Earth First! organizer, said the lawsuit was not about collecting money.
"There's no doubt that this sort of thing has a chilling effect," 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 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.
Copyright © 1996, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Anchorage Daily News (AD) - MONDAY November 18, 1996
Edition: Final Section: Metro Page: C5
Million dollar case
DON BLEWETT just won a million dollar victory in an Idaho court case. He'll probably never get a penny of it.
But the outcome of a two-week civil trial in Grangeville, Idaho, may be reward enough for Blewett, the owner of a road building company called Highland Enterprises. And it may be a lesson to other environmental extremists who might be motivated to damage the property of others in pursuit of their own eco-agendas.
In this case, 12 members of the environmental fringe organization known as Earth First! vandalized equipment owned by Blewett and located on a job site in central Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest. The Earth Firsters savaged the equipment in a 1993 protest of a timber sale in the Cove-Mallard area of the forest.
A jury awarded Blewett $150,000 in compensatory damages and $999,999 in punitive damages.
Those assessed the damages, alas, have no money -- just a passion. But it may have been cooled a tad by the jury verdict. "If it does nothing but deter them from coming up there and causing us trouble again, it's worth it," Blewett said.
Unfortunately, knowing the history of these protesters, that's probably wishful thinking.