22 results for 'judge:"Vitter"'.
J. Vitter denies a request by the owner of a maritime vessel to dismiss a personal injury complaint by the foreman of a painting company on grounds the open deck hatch through which he fell was an open and obvious condition that absolves the ship’s owner from liability. Ambiguity in the testimony of a vessel employee is sufficient to raise a genuine dispute regarding whether the company that owns the vessel had a duty to warn the painter of the open hatch into which he fell.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Vitter, Filed On: September 3, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv2152, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Negligence
J. Vitter grants a request by a Louisiana parish resident for $140,000 in attorney fees and court costs following a jury’s $185,000 damages award against a deputy for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The state-law claim stemmed from an escalating altercation at a residence in 2020 during which the deputy threatened the man with a taser and blocked him from filming another deputy struggling to handcuff his prone mother for allegedly resisting arrest. The deputies were responding to a complaint of a person riding a “dirt bike” without a helmet.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: August 7, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv879, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Attorney Fees, Police Misconduct
J. Vitter denies a request by a Connecticut-based insurance company to dismiss breach of contract and bad faith claims filed by the buyer of a hurricane-damaged property whose purchase included an assignment of rights to the insurance policy. The insurer argues the assignment is not valid because the insurer never agreed to the transfer. Under Louisiana law, the buyer is allowed “to step into the shoes” of the seller and assert claims against the insurer. Therefore, the new policyholder has stated a plausible bad faith claim against the insurer. Further, the policy does not contain the clear and unambiguous language regarding post-loss assignments of right, as required by Louisiana law. Therefore, the new policyholder has stated a plausible breach of contract claim against the insurer.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: August 2, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv5116, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Property, Damages, Contract
J. Vitter denies a request by Ohio-based J.M. Smuckers food services to transfer a wrongful death suit by the parents of a Louisiana child who died after eating Jif peanut butter contaminated by salmonella. Louisiana’s interest in adjudicating the dispute, which involves the death of a Louisiana citizen based upon events that occurred in Louisiana, outweighs any interest Ohio may have in litigating a case involving business entities headquartered there.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: July 30, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2514, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Consumer Law, Wrongful Death, Venue
J. Vitter grants a request by a parish fire protection district, dismissing firefighters’ claims the collection and storage of their fingerprints to accurately assess when they have clocked in and out of work is a violation of their constitutional right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Maintaining employee accountability in working their assigned hours when public funds are used to pay their salaries is a legitimate justification for fingerprinting employees. The “intrusion” of fingerprinting satisfies the legitimate government interests in ensuring that public funds for the firefighters’ salaries are used for their intended purpose.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: July 22, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv439, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Government
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J. Vitter awards a Mississippi River push-boat captain and his crew a salvage award of $3.7 million for risking their own safety to corral 23 breakaway barges owned by another maritime business during Hurricane Ida in 2021. The captain, his two family members, and a radio dispatcher aboard as lookout, were the only individuals who responded to the breakaway barges that were in "imminent danger of complete loss.” The flatboat owner “did nothing to assist with the breakaway barges” until the following day, when its contractors retrieved the barges the captain and his men rounded up and beached with “phenomenal” skill, according to the unopposed testimony of a marine safety expert.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: June 14, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2542, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Admiralty, International Law, Maritime
J. Vitter finds for a general contractor and majority owner of a joint venture in a prison construction project, finding its minority partner breached their contract by forging a confidential settlement of a contract dispute with a former sheriff as project owner. The general contractor alleges its minority-owner partner breached their joint venture agreement by, among other things, failing to provide necessary working capital contributions to the venture and by failing to pay back $6 million in loans to the general contractor.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: June 6, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5323, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Construction, Evidence, Partnerships
J. Vitter finds for a two-member limited liability corporation in Louisiana, holding two Texas-based LLCs jointly liable for the outstanding balance of a $4 million loan. Although the obligation was vested to one LLC by operation of a merger, the original borrower-LLC was never released from its obligation under the promissory note. Furthermore, while the original borrower validly allocated its obligation under the promissory note to the other Texas LLC in the merger, thereby making it the primary obligor of the note under Texas law, nothing in Texas law supports that original borrowing LLC extinguished all liability via the merger.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1707, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Corporations, Banking / Lending, Contract
J. Vitter grants summary judgment to a transportation company involved in moving large steel containers by truck, rail and ship, finding a truck driver has failed to present proof the company played a role in loading a container that caused the operator’s truck to tip over, resulting in his injuries.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv797, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Discovery
J. Vitter grants a request by two domestic insurers and two foreign insurers who jointly provide a surplus lines policy, staying a failure-to-cover suit filed by an apartment complex owner pending arbitration of claims related to fire damage. Although the owner does not dispute his policy’s arbitration provision regarding the foreign insurers, he argues state law prohibits arbitration clauses as to domestic insurers. However, the state law he cites does not apply to surplus line policies.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv7066, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Insurance, Contract
J. Vitter grants a request by a driver suing a sheriff's department, excluding the testimony of a veteran narcotics officer with “expertise in olfactory science” who claims a deputy could smell marijuana coming from the litigant’s car because the drug has an unmistakable odor that “becomes part of the user’s life.” None of the the opinions by the expert meet federal standards for reliability and relevancy, as his opinions do not assist the trier of fact and are not the product of reliable principles and methods. “No expertise is needed to understand that the opening and closing of a car door may allow odors contained within the vehicle to escape.”
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv1275, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Evidence, Police Misconduct
J. Vitter denies a request by the owner of an offshore oilfield platform to exclude the testimony of an injured worker’s liability expert because his opinions are allegedly based on insufficient facts or data. The expert’s testimony will help determine the facts in dispute at the non-jury trial. "It is the role of the adversarial system, not the court, to highlight weak evidence."
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv1222, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Maritime, Experts
J. Vitter denies summary judgment to the owner of an offshore production platform on the argument it is not responsible for injuries a rig worker allegedly sustained on a chartered supply vessel carrying him to an oil platform. Two site leaders on the platform at the time of the incident testified that the rig owner has control over both the timing and the means by which a crew change occurs.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv122, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Maritime, Tort
J. Vitter grants a request by a bank to dismiss a landscaping business’ complaint the creditor did not timely process its application for a federally guaranteed pandemic recovery loan in 2021 before the Small Business Administration ran out of funds. The ruling agrees with the bank’s assertion the business disingenuously refused to admit it earned far more than the loan program’s maximum of $1 million in gross revenues required to qualify for a 30-day notification by the bank, information the business concealed by redaction from its lawsuit. "The [c]ourt will not tolerate such gamesmanship."
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv1324, NOS: Banks and Banking - Other Suits, Categories: Evidence, Business Practices, Covid-19
J. Vitter grants summary judgment to a minority-owner of a joint venture of general contractors formed to obtain construction work on prison buildings in New Orleans, dismissing the majority-owner's demands for a total of $6 million in capital contributions it made on behalf of its estranged minority partner. The ruling finds the joint venture agreement requires an executive committee's approval of the need for capital contributions to bind the two contractors and partners. The language of the joint venture agreement makes it clear the minority partner is not in default of the contract since the executive committee did not unanimously approve the majority partner’s capital contribution.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5323, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Construction, Evidence, Government
J. Vitter denies a request by a motorist arrested on marijuana and weapons charges to overrule a magistrate judge’s decision in a discovery dispute in his civil rights case against a deputy and sheriff. His request for an order requiring the sheriff's office to turn over 255 reports is disproportionate to the needs of the case; the sheriff need only turn over 84 of the requested records. The motorist, whose charges were resolved by pretrial diversion, has not provided evidence to support his accusations the sheriff's office is deliberately withholding documents.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv1275, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, Discovery, Police Misconduct
J. Vitter grants summary judgment to a sheriff, dismissing the wrongful death and excessive force claims brought by the sister of a transgender inmate who alleges he died in custody after being beaten in his cell by deputies. There is no evidence to support her allegations the deputies used force on or before his death. The undisputed evidence, contained in the autopsy report, shows that the inmate died of natural causes, specifically a Covid-19 infection. The autopsy further states that there was no evidence of trauma.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 22cv3734, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Evidence, Wrongful Death
J. Vitter denies an insurer's request to dismiss a policyholder’s coverage claims on grounds he failed to add two additional named insureds to his suit. The insurer “appears to misunderstand” the rules of civil procedure it alleges its insured is violating. The failure to add a person deemed a required litigant to the suit does not mandate the dismissal of the entire action; rather, the proper remedy in such a scenario is for an order that the “absent-yet-required" person be made a litigant in the case.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6331, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Insurance, Damages
J. Vitter denies a request by a Baton Rouge-based land and real estate services corporation whose name includes the legally protectable word “Rampart” for a court order barring a New Orleans property management company from using the same word due to the likelihood of public confusion. The litigant-corporation's evidence of actual confusion consists of a FedEx driver’s conflation of its office with that of the New Orleans company and seven phone calls received by the corporation at its Baton Rouge office. The corporation fails to meet the evidentiary burden for the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6895, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Corporations, Patent, Trademark
J. Vitter denies summary judgment to university's board of supervisors, refusing to dismiss allegations it knew a college football player had physically harassed one female student before a second woman alleged he punched her so hard in the stomach he fractured her ribs. The two women have raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the board exercised substantial control over the football player, who was ultimately expelled following his arrest for beating the woman and repeatedly disobeying court orders.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Vitter, Filed On: December 22, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv242, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Evidence, Assault
J. Vitter grants a Texas-based corporation’s motion to dismiss, for lack of jurisdiction, a breach of contract suit filed by a Louisiana businessowner who alleges he paid $55,000 for services to his web-based Amazon ecommerce store. The Texas business’s limited contacts with Louisiana do not satisfy jurisdictional requirements. The contractual dispute is ordered to arbitration as requested by the Texas corporation.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vitter, Filed On: November 6, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv3847, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Contract