177 results for 'court:"USDC Western District of Louisiana "'.
J. Doughty grants unopposed requests by an insurance claims adjuster and an inspection company, dismissing negligence claims filed by a manufacturer of welding products. The manufacturer fails to plausibly allege either business owed it a duty under Louisiana law related to the hiring of the two companies for damage assessments after hurricane-driven rainfall allegedly damaged 10 welding machines. The manufacturer also does not allege any fraud or intentional misrepresentation against either company and does not oppose their dismissal from the suit.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1103, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Property, Damages
J. Walter grants a pre-trial request by a maximum security inmate at a North Louisiana prison, barring authorities from using an old marijuana conviction and dismissed criminal drug charges against him to attack his credibility. The disallowed charges did not result in felony convictions. Both sides agree that the parish attorneys may use his guilty plea to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm as a defense against his disability discrimination claim. The inmate is suing the parish prison���s medical department for refusing to provide him with methadone and oxycodone for his sickle cell disease.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Walter, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 5:22cv6144, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities - Other - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Jury, Prisoners' Rights
J. Hornsby denies a request by owners of a skilled nursing facility to stay discovery of a potential class action alleging fraudulent reporting of nursing shortages for 100 residents over a three-year period. The owners of the facility unsuccessfully sought to pause the litigation by the daughter of a deceased resident, pending a ruling on a jurisdictional challenge, under the Class Action Fairness Act. The facility���s owners say the suit is one of 13 related cases filed by the litigant���s counsel filed in federal and state courts in Louisiana. ���There are sound arguments on both sides of the issue��� but the ���best exercise��� of the court���s discretion is to allow discovery to proceed.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Hornsby, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1750, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Health Care, Discovery, Class Action
J. Doughty grants a request by the former wife of a businessman whose two brothers and a national baby products manufacturer sued his former spouse for breach of contract and unjust enrichment related to the couple's alleged failure to reimburse to the Louisiana-based company a total of $1.7 million for unauthorized personal expenses on company credit cards. The two brothers and the baby products-maker have not made a clear showing of minimum contacts to the state sufficient to hale their brother's ex-wife into a Louisiana court. The former spouse says she is domiciled in Florida and she was never party to a contract in Louisiana.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv452, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Jurisdiction, Contract
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J. Cain denies an insurer's request for sanctions of attorney fees against a lawyer and his law firm for suing the insurer after the insurer had settled a property owner���s hurricane damage claim with other counsel. The lawyer and his firm acted in bad faith throughout the litigation and sanctions are appropriate. However, because the proof of billing hours submitted by insurance counsel are inadequate, insurance counsel are allowed time to support the reasonableness of the fees sought.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv3375, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Sanctions, Attorney Fees
J. Perez-Montes grants a request by a former district attorney to stay discovery in the malicious prosecution and false imprisonment suit by a criminal defendant who spent 44 years in prison for two rapes committed in 1977. His conviction was overturned and the current prosecutor declined to re-try him. The former district attorney has shown good cause to stay discovery of the sole remaining charge against him ��� fabrication of evidence ��� pending other requests regarding immunity. The defendant-turned-litigant will not be disadvantaged by the stay of his suit.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Perez-Montes, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1971, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Malicious Prosecution, Immunity, Discovery
J. Summerhays awards $248,000 to a deckhand on a shrimp boat against the vessel���s owner for injuries sustained in an allision. The employer deliberately failed to investigate the seaman���s injury claim that the captain of the boat had been drinking and the vessel was traveling at approximately 40 mph when it struck an oil platform. The employer also failed to respond to the injured seaman���s suit and ���callously��� failed to provide the injured deckhand with medical benefits and living expenses during his recovery.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 6:19cv1442, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Maritime, Damages
J. Cain denies summary judgment to four corrections officers on excessive force claims by an inmate who they say has a history of violent and defiant behaviors and expressing homicidal ideation. A prison video over his cell suggests he ���may have taken one step for one second outside of his cell; it does not show that he was attempting an escape or that he completely walked out of his cell.��� The video does not show what occurred inside Cell 13, nor is there audio to determine if the inmate was ordered back into his cell.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv1042, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Police Misconduct
J. Cain grants summary judgment to a salvage business on its breach of contract claim against a maritime company that refused to pay its $207,000 bill for the successful recovery of its sunken river barge. The company unsuccessfully argued the fee was excessive, adding it expected its insurer to pay for the barge recovery and would not have allowed the salvage to proceed if it had known its insurer would deny the claim. The failure of the barge owner to pay any portion of the undisputed amount is a breach of the marine contract. A factual dispute remains as to whether the salvage business performed all of the services listed in its invoices and whether the barge owner was overcharged for divers, materials or transport days.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv626, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Damages, Business Practices, Business Expectancy
J. Drell orders a school's executive director to turn over complete and unredacted records of any phone calls and text messages he exchanged with three subordinate employees, during two days of depositions for an English instructor���s Title VII sexual harassment and retaliation suit. The school destroyed evidence to conceal it from the litigant-teacher and, therefore, the teacher is granted an ���adverse inference��� as a sanction. A jury may infer that deleted texts would have shown the executive director instructed the three workers how they were to testify in their depositions and that the testimony in their own depositions reflects the instructions of their boss.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Drell, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv4419, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Drell grants a request by the seller of a Caterpillar bulldozer to a parish government, dismissing the company from a wrongful death suit filed by the widow and children of the vehicle���s operator. The operator���s family has no reasonable possibility of recovery under state law, and they have not shown the company was a professional vendor with control over the design or construction of the bulldozer. Furthermore, because a warning to wear a seatbelt was posted on the machine within the operator���s view, the seller did not have a duty to verbally warn parish employees that operating the bulldozer without wearing the seatbelt could be dangerous.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Drell, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv672, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Product Liability, Wrongful Death
J. Joseph denies a request by the distributor of a digital test gauge to dismiss as time-barred a product liability claim by the widow of an offshore oilfield worker. She alleges the poor design and inadequate warnings about the use of the pressure-gauge resulted in the deadly explosion at an offshore well that claimed her husband and the father of their two young children. The decedent���s employer, as the owner of the offshore platform, and the distributor of the pressure gauge are both liable even when no act on the employer���s part may have caused the accident. Prescription was interrupted by the survivors' earlier wrongful death suit against the employer in Texas.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 6:23cv415, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Product Liability, Jurisdiction
J. Cain denies a request by a surplus line insurance company to dismiss a parish sheriff���s suit for damages to a public building caused by two hurricanes and a winter storm. The insurer argues coverage of the damaged building should be voided to the sheriff���s ���misrepresentations��� on ownership. The insurer has not shown how certain statements by the sheriff���s office are material to the insurer���s claims, ���let alone pointed to any circumstances that they were made with the intent to deceive.���
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv3947, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Government, Insurance
J. Summerhays refuses to dismiss punitive damages claims by a police officer who alleges the police chief violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for warning the public about criminal activity at a Knights of Columbus Hall, managed by the chief���s personal friends. The chief placed him under investigation for a department violation when the off-duty officer used his personal Facebook page to warn the public that there would be a shooting at the local KC Hall, which in fact occurred hours later. The officer���s allegations satisfy the requirements for penalty damages.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 6:20cv1063, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Damages, Police Misconduct
J. Cain denies summary judgment to a Louisiana company on its argument it did not breach its lease for storing sacks of the industrial coloring agent, titanium dioxide. The company argues warehouse owners cannot prove damages because the fine, white, nonhazardous powder existed on the walls and ceilings when its 2017 and 2012 leases began. Warehouse owners say it cost them $80,690 to vacuum and dispose of the industrial dust. Given the nature of the damage involved, ���it would be impossible to distinguish which grains settled prior to 2012 or 2017,��� and which grains settled afterwards.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2386, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Property, Business Practices
J. Doughty denies summary judgment to private operators of a Louisiana prison and two corrections officers sued for the wrongful death of a convicted felon who suffered a fatal asthma attack. Although deliberate indifference is an ���extremely high standard to meet," prior to his death, ���he had two asthma attacks��� that prison guards ���clearly ignored.��� The seriousness of the inmate���s medical needs in this case ���should not be called into question when the result of the incident his death.���
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 3:21cv299, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights
J. Doughty denies a request by a parish governing body to dismiss claims of vicarious liability for deliberate indifference to the medical needs of a pre-trial detainee, a former California resident who was moving cross-country in a U-Haul truck with a hired helper when the two men were arrested and jailed on narcotics allegations that were later dismissed. After a jail nurse recorded a high blood pressure rate requiring hospitalization, the litigant requested medical attention; however, he was allegedly strip-searched and placed in a holding cell for hours and ignored. The day of his release from jail, he allegedly collapsed in a hotel hallway from a stroke.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv899, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Police Misconduct
J. Cain finds for a town and against its insurer, holding the grid baffle waterflow control system in the municipality���s wastewater treatment facility, which was destroyed by winds from back-to-back hurricanes, is covered by its insurance policy. The insurer failed to support its argument the damage was not covered because the baffle system is ���mobile equipment��� and not a building.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2300, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Damages
J. Drell grants summary judgment to a Texas-based corrugated packaging company, dismissing breach of contract claims by a transportation service in Mississippi. The proposed written contract for warehousing services and its terms are unenforceable, and the corrugated packaging company in Texas did not promise the Mississippi company a three-year term for warehousing services.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Drell, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv445, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Business Practices, Contract
J. Hicks denies, in part, summary judgment to BellSouth on certain trespass claims by a homeowner related to the telecommunications company���s acknowledgement its underground innerduct for protecting fiber optic cable encroaches on her property. The determination of damages based on physical property damage, inconvenience and mental suffering, as well as mitigation of damages, are better suited to trial.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Hicks, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv153, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Evidence, Property
J. Joseph denies requests by a city to dismiss claims of civil rights violations by organizers of a residential treatment facility for alcoholics for alleged lack of standing, after neighboring church pastors opposed the proposed $1 million sale of a 54-bedroom building for use as a sober house. While the rehab home organizers argue potential residents were subjected to disability discrimination, they also claim this discrimination led to the deprivation of their own rights when the city refused to sell it the property.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv697, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Housing, Contract
J. Foote, ruling on remand, denies summary judgment to Shreveport police officers on their argument a favorable Fifth Circuit opinion on alleged constitutional violations should foreclose state law claims by an elderly man who was allegedly bitten by a police dog during their search for a murder suspect. Although the Fifth Circuit's opinion forecloses the senior citizen���s pursuit of a state law excessive force claim, if ���the arrest is unlawful then all force used to effectuate the arrest is excessive and constitutes a battery." It is undisputed the elderly litigant was an ���innocent bystander who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.���
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Foote, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 5:19cv1261, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Evidence, Police Misconduct