In a legal battle that started in 2003, an appeals court upheld a ruling that directed the state to pay more than $13.6 million to Lee County homeowners whose healthy citrus trees were cut down amid an effort to halt the spread of citrus-canker disease.

A panel of the Second District Court of Appeal rejected arguments that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services could not pay the thousands of homeowners because the Legislature had not approved the money. It said that sections of state law cited by the department were unconstitutional "as applied" to the case.

The appeals court reached that conclusion because of part of the Florida Constitution that bars the government from taking property without paying full compensation. In doing so, it upheld a ruling by a Lee County circuit judge.