29 results for 'judge:"Jolivette Brown"'.
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to a maritime employer on its request to dismiss a seaman’s claim for punitive damages related to a work-related injury. There is adequate evidence the deckhand demonstrated to his employer his leg and back injury were caused or at least aggravated by a river collision between two barges. A reasonable fact-finder could further find his employer exhibited “callous, arbitrary and bad faith behavior” by refusing to pay the injured seaman’s health care and living expenses for more than two years after supporting documentation was produced.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: September 13, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1849, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Maritime, Tort, Damages
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request by a maritime company to exclude due to a “lack of trustworthiness” the recorded statement of its former employee, a deckhand and lookout aboard one of two tugs towing an allegedly submerged pipe, when a fishing vessel collided with the pipe. The former deckhand’s statement was recorded by an investigator hired by a claimant on the fishing boat. The deckhand failed to appear in court or for a deposition despite the issuance of a bench warrant for his testimony. Other live, non-hearsay witnesses will address the visibility of the pipe at trial. The interests of justice would not be served by admitting the recorded statement of the missing deckhand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Texas , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: August 1, 2024, Case #: 2:22-cv-04535, NOS: All Other Real Property - Real Property, Categories: Civil Procedure, Maritime, Discovery
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, finding a Middle Eastern nurse at a V.A. hospital in New Orleans has made a clear showing of all five elements of her hostile work environment claim. The V.A. does not deny she was subject to unwelcomed harassment. When taken together, her allegations of a patient’s discriminatory death threats, harassing comments by a cop and two co-workers about her making and/or possessing “bombs,” a “pity party” comment by a supervisor at a meeting called to discuss her concerns of discrimination and multiple denials of leave are sufficient to support a hostile workplace claim.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: July 31, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1043, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Health Care, Employment Discrimination
J. Jolivette Brown denies remand to two coastal Louisiana property owners suing their insurer, holding their case will remain in her court because they engaged in bad faith by deliberately failing to disclose a public adjuster’s report that valued their claim for hurricane damages to the property at $171,000, exceeding the $75,000 minimum for federal jurisdiction. The property owners’ disregard for the court’s instructions, coupled with numerous opportunities for disclosing the adjuster’s report, support a finding their actions were deliberate and not just an oversight.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: July 16, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv1209, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Property, Damages, Jurisdiction
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to a sub-sub-subcontractor who alleges a subcontractor owes him more than $700,000 for work done on a housing construction contract following two hurricanes in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. There are genuine issues of material fact as to whether a verbal agreement existed between the two contractors and whether the subcontractor he is suing is responsible for paying him for his work on the disaster recovery project. The sub-sub-contractor's self-serving declaration and the ambiguous emails and text messages are insufficient evidence to support summary judgment.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: July 11, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv914, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Construction, Government, Contract
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J. Jolivette Brown denies a request by a general contractor on the building of a new public high school to dismiss a masonry company’s allegation that discrepancies in construction drawings accounted for a brick surplus of one color and a shortage of another color for an overall miscalculation of 78,000 bricks. The complaint alleges the general contractor failed to pay for the red-and-tan brick change order amount of $248,000. The masonry’s “bare allegation” that the change order is due pursuant to the subcontract, without more, is insufficient to support a claim under the state public works law.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: July 3, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6866, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Construction, Contract
J. Jolivette Brown denies a temporary employment agency’s request to dismiss its former landlord’s breach of lease claims and demand for damages totaling $104,000, in addition to attorney fees. There is insufficient information in the record to determine who owned the property at the time of the lease termination. Therefore, the issue cannot be resolved at the current stage of the litigation.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: June 14, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1950, NOS: Rent Lease & Ejectment - Real Property, Categories: Evidence, Landlord Tenant, Property
J. Jolivette Brown denies a request by a parish president in Louisiana and the chairman of the parish council to dismiss a First Amendment suit by a community activist. She alleges the chairman ordered her to “stop this comment” and threatened her with jail at a videotaped public meeting when she rose to protest a proposal to authorize a taxpayer-funded lawyer for the parish president, who was the subject of a state ethics investigation. The ordinance the chairman cited was ruled unconstitutional nearly a decade earlier.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: June 5, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv7296, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Government
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request by a trucking company and its insurer, dismissing as time-barred a suit by an individual who alleges he was injured while attempting to unload stage equipment from the vehicle. The individual's original complaint was filed against “John Doe I, II and III," which was not a mistake but based on his lack of knowledge of the parties. Therefore, the litigant's amended suit does not relate back to the filing of his original complaint and must be dismissed.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: May 22, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6820, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Tort, Vehicle
J. Jolivette Brown denies a request by the New Orleans District Attorney to dismiss as vague pattern-and-practice claims that prosecutors and police concealed favorable evidence, resulting in the individual's wrongful conviction for first-degree murder in 1985. The litigant asserts two former U.S. Supreme Court justices observed that concealing exculpatory evidence in New Orleans was routine in the 1980s. However, the Supreme Court and circuit court decisions concerning the New Orleans’ prosecutor’s office did not create a “bright line” as to how many of 51 cases containing Brady violations would be comparable and sufficient to establish a custom of unconstitutional conduct. The individual is given time to amend such deficiencies in his complaint.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: May 21, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6897, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, Malicious Prosecution, Police Misconduct
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request for a preliminary injunction by the parents of a disabled 7-year-old boy, ordering a transit authority to allow the child to use the historic St. Charles Avenue streetcar anywhere his wheelchair can be safely deployed. Transit officials must comply with the order regardless of whether they believe a particular stop complies with the technical requirements of federal disability discrimination laws. The transit authority must add revise its “app” so the boy and other wheelchair users can see the location of the two wheel-chair accessible streetcars on the 114-stop line in real time, “rather than guessing and waiting for one to finally arrive.”
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: May 16, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2578, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities - Other - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Evidence, Transportation
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to a New Orleans hotel on its argument the litigant’s claims for monetary damages are barred by state law because he was sentenced to 37 months in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun in connection with the shooting death of an armed hotel parking valet. Genuine issues of material fact remain as to whether the deceased valet had the right to use reasonable force during the incident. Furthermore, the litigant's claims of negligence, assault, battery and false imprisonment will not be dismissed for non-participation in discovery since he is involuntarily incarcerated.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv1764, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Damages, Negligence
J. Jolivette Brown denies a request by insurers to exclude the damage estimates of a certified public accountant for a high school suing a flooring company for fire damage to its gymnasium. The insurers argue a reasonable juror is capable of adding numbers and calculating the soft costs element, which requires one act of multiplication to obtain a 10% sub-amount. While a jury may be capable of adding and multiplying numbers, the fact that a “soft costs” calculation requires a 10% sub-amount is not within the common knowledge of lay person. As such, the expert’s testimony will assist the jury.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5292, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Experts
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request by an insurance company, dismissing a homeowner’s contract claims arising from her hurricane-related property damages. The policy was issued to the mortage lender. The homeowner, as mortgagor, has not established she is entitled to any benefits from the policy. She unsuccessfully argues the remaining balance on the mortgage is $695,000 and, because the policy limit of $1 million exceeds the mortgage balance by $387,000, the lower, remaining amount is intended to benefit her. The policy does not contain a provision stating that any excess payment would be given to the mortgagor.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6691, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Fiduciary Duty, Contract
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request by a Nevada resident for an order freezing $294,000 worth of his cryptocurrency assets traced to private accounts held by a purported investor he is suing for fraud. The litigant has shown that irreparable harm will ensue absent a restraining order, considering the speed with which cryptocurrency transactions are made, as well as the anonymous nature of those transactions. The potential recovery of assets will disappear if the accused is allowed to transfer the allegedly stolen assets into inaccessible digital wallets, which could occur at any moment.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv393, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Evidence, Fraud, Conversion
J. Jolivette Brown grants a request by domestic and foreign insurers to stay litigation initiated by a property owner, ordering him to arbitrate his storm-damage related claims. Although Louisiana law ordinarily prohibits enforcement of arbitration clauses concerning insurance disputes, an international treaty on arbitration supersedes state law. Furthermore, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which the property owner cites, does not apply to an international treaty.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6464, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Arbitration, Insurance, International Law
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to a flooring company on its argument the lessee of a gymnasium building, a popular Catholic high school, cannot recover for fire damage allegedly caused by the improper disposal of self-heating wood stain rags. The law is unclear as to whether St. Augustine, as a lessee, has a right of action to pursue a claim for property damages or loss of property value under these circumstances. Additionally, there are fact issues in dispute regarding the extent of the obligation assumed by St. Augustine by way of the lease agreement.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5292, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Damages, Product Liability, Experts
J. Jolivette Brown grants summary judgment to an insurance company and against the owner of an aircraft on his breach of contract claim, arising from hurricane damage to his plane which crashed three months later while en route to scheduled repairs from the storm, destroying the aircraft and killing the pilot. The insurer successfully argued it paid the plane’s owner the full policy amount of $65,000, the agreed value of the aircraft, following the crash. The owner does not dispute that additional payment for the hurricane’s damages to the aircraft would constitute impermissible double recovery. The ruling does not address the plane owner’s additional claims of negligence, bad faith or breached duties as the insurer’s request is limited only to further payment for property damage to the aircraft under its policy.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv678, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Property, Aviation