Clover Coffie v. Florida Crystals Corp.

A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to sugarcane producers' annual burning of sugarcane fields. Nearby landowners argued that the burning has led to a diminution of their property values and that they have suffered and continue to suffer damage to their property, unnecessary and substantial nuisance, and long-term health effects. The producers moved to dismiss, arguing that the landowners lacked standing. The court found that there was nothing in the landowners' complaint showing that each of them had been harmed by the producers, indicating that their properties had been harmed, or alleging that they had been exposed to smoke and ash from the producers, and thus that they failed to adequately allege standing. It therefore dismissed the landowners' complaint, but granted them leave to replead their standing allegations.