319 results for 'court:"USDC Eastern District of Louisiana "'.
J. Fallon denies a request by the widow of a shipyard worker who allegedly died from asbestos exposure, declining to dismiss the indemnity and defense claims filed by the owner of the shipyard and the manufacturer of marine interiors on sea-going vessels. However, the widow reserves the right to re-urge arguments against the shipyard and the manufacturer if two ship-owners do not successfully demonstrate they are entitled to indemnity protection.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: May 13, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv1877, NOS: Asbestos Personal Injury Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Product Liability, Indemnification, Asbestos
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J. Guidry denies competing requests by a maritime employer and its employee to exclude testimony by one another���s expert in a personal injury case. The steersman, who allegedly suffered a back injury while performing deck work on a tug and barge fleet, has sufficiently established his expert���s testimony is based on his expertise and experience as a boat captain and that his testimony will be helpful to the jury. Likewise, testimony by the towing company���s expert, also an experienced riverboat captain, will be helpful to the jury because the case involves maritime matters that can assist a layperson.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Guidry, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv237, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Jury, Experts
J. Vance denies a request by a Michigan-based insurer to dismiss a Louisiana policyholder���s failure-to-cover suit alleging hurricane damage to two separate properties. Because the policyholder has properly alleged all of its claims against the insurer and the amount in controversy is met with respect to one of the two properties, the court has jurisdiction over the entire case.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vance, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv458, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Jurisdiction
J. Ashe grants a request by the owner of an offshore supply boat to dismiss a purported expert for the vessel���s captain in his maritime personal injury case. While nobody challenges his qualifications as a mechanical engineer, both his report and deposition demonstrate his lack of expertise in naval architecture, marine engineering and vessel operations. He cannot offer expert opinions regarding the cause or effect of vessel ���slamming��� during offshore cargo operations that allegedly injured the captain.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Ashe, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1712, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Maritime, Negligence, Experts
J. Milazzo grants a group of insurers��� request for a preliminary injunction, barring New Orleans��� aviation board from prosecuting arbitration claims against them related to a design contract dispute over the construction of the new terminal facility at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The irreparable harm the insurers would suffer if forced to arbitrate claims without an arbitration agreement outweighs any harm the city���s aviation board would suffer in potential litigation costs.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Milazzo, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv5806, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Arbitration, Contract
J. Africk grants summary judgment to an insurer on an apartment complex owner's breach of contract action related to hurricane damages. The litigant���s claim was premature when it was filed. He concedes he reported the claim to the insurer only nine days before filing the lawsuit, and almost two years after the hurricane. Additionally, despite the insurer���s efforts to contact the apartment complex owner���s counsel to schedule an inspection, the insurer received no response until after the lawsuit had been filed.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Africk, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv369, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Damages
J. Ashe grants summary judgment to a shoreside employer and against its loader-operator on spud barges, rejecting the employee���s claims he is entitled to a seaman���s status and benefits after he was knocked into a canal while unloading limestone from a barge. The employee is not a seaman because he did not engage in sea-based or seagoing activity and did not sail with his employer���s vessels. The undisputed evidence shows that the employee nearly always worked on vessels that were only a gangplank away from shore.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Ashe, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2570, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Maritime
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. Fallon grants a request by officials of a parish council, dismissing the claims of a resident alleging they violated his due process rights by improperly denying him a permit to sell Valentine���s Day gifts. The entrepreneur���s councilman withdrew an enabling resolution, after admonishing the resident for his treatment of council staff. He accused parish elected officials of abuse of power. The Valentine���s Day salesman���s suit is dismissed as previously litigated in state courts.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2035, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Constitution, Government
J. Vance grants the unopposed request for summary judgment to a Toyota manufacturer and a sales company, dismissing product liability claims by the driver of a 2014 Lexus ES350 who alleges injuries from the car���s airbag failure to deploy when he crashed into a guard rail. The Toyota companies presented certified medical records taken at the hospital where the litigant was treated after the accident, in which the treating physician stated that he reportedly ���drank a significant amount of alcohol and then crashed his car on purpose [in] an attempt to end his life secondary to depression and suicidal thoughts after a break-up 5 months ago.��� Furthermore, the litigant has failed to present evidence sufficient to establish the essential elements of his defective airbag claims.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vance, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv4607, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Vehicle, Product Liability
J. Milazzo grants a preliminary injunction to a 71-year-old widow with a medical condition and sole custody of her 6-year-old granddaughter. The Louisiana Department of Health is ordered to continue paying the woman���s Medicaid health premium while she challenges the state���s termination of her benefit based on its ���size of the family��� criteria that does not include children or grandchildren. Louisiana stopped paying the grandmother���s monthly Medicaid premium in early April 2024, based on its conclusion she lived in a one-person home, a finding that does not include the child, who is dependent upon her for financial support. Louisiana���s Medicaid manual limits the state���s family size criteria to a household of two - an applicant and an eligible spouse.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Milazzo, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv728, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Government, Health Care, Medicaid
J. Africk denies summary judgment to an insurer and its insured homeowners on claims the insurer acted in bad faith by failing to pay for hurricane damages within 30 days upon proof of loss. ���Although the question is close,��� the facts of the payment at issue are sufficient to create a genuine dispute as to whether the original inspection constituted satisfactory proof of loss.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Africk, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv377, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Damages
J. Currault denies the request of a prevailing litigant to compel the remote deposition of former counsel in the case of a man accused of falsely representing his HIV status to induce unprotected sex, resulting in litigant���s infection with the incurable virus after a sexual encounter in 2019. The former counsel has intervened to assert a lien and any recovery the prevailing litigant may realize from a ruling of default judgment. The prevailing litigant���s recent voluntary relocation to Poland does not, on its own, constitute good cause to order remote depositions. Moreover, he has not argued that travel to New Orleans for the depositions would jeopardize his health or impose a financial burden.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv2242, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Discovery
J. Fallon finds an international commodity trading company based in the U.K. is entitled to $629,000 in unpaid invoices for fuel delivered to a cargo vessel in Spain. The fuel provider has not been paid by either of two charterers or the vessel. The vessel was arrested in the Port of New Orleans and released on a $775,000 bond. The commodity trader is provided to a maritime lien against the vessel���s owner for the unpaid fuel, plus interest and fees for a total amount of $722,000.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23cv595, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Maritime, Damages, Banking / Lending
J. Zainey denies a request by Walmart to dismiss as time-barred an overnight stocker���s malicious prosecution and defamation suit. She argues the clock on her claims did not begin running until after a city prosecutor dismissed Walmart���s theft claims. The store had her arrested for twice purchasing multiple packages of newly marked-down meat after her shift ended. In neither instance did she alter the pricing labels, and she paid full price for the meat. Walmart may raise its prescription argument later.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Zainey, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6441, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Defamation
J. Van Meerveld grants summary judgment to the city of New Orleans, dismissing a Title VII racial discrimination suit by a fired white police sergeant who alleges he was disciplined more harshly than nine black officers for similar offenses. The sergeant���s eight social media posts clearly advocate unnecessary force and use terms historically used to demean black people, such as ���animals,��� and ���savages," to describe Black Lives Matters protesters after the murder of George Floyd. The black officers cited were not comparators. The Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated the sergeant with back pay and emoluments on appeal.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Van Meerveld, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5060, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Police Misconduct
J. Milazzo awards a total of $646,000 in damages to a registered nurse on her car collision action against the U.S. Postal Service and its driver. Evidence, including the opinion of an orthopedic surgeon who examined the 36-year-old mother of three young children that the crash aggravated her shoulder complaints and caused a new injury to her neck, supports the award.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Milazzo, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv241, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Tort, Damages, Experts
J. Currault grants a request by the owner of a self-propelled spud barge, compelling a marine repair yard to produce personnel files on all seven of its employees who worked on its vessel at the time it was damaged by a fire. Training records of the employees performing work on the vessel are relevant to the claims and defenses of this case and must be produced. The repair yard's objections on the basis of overbreadth and undue burden are overruled as improper.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv243, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Maritime, Discovery
J. Ashe grants a request by Arkansas-based Walmart to dismiss a Florida resident's claim for punitive damages in a slip and fall action. Louisiana law prohibits the award of punitive damages unless they are expressly authorized by statute, and, in this case, that Walmart is a Louisiana domiciliary.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Ashe, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv7230, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Tort, Damages, Choice Of Law
J. Currault grants a request by a woman injured in a traffic accident with the driver of a truck owned by a holding company, compelling disclosure of the individual owners of all members of its limited liability corporations. The holding company���s responses are insufficient, and the citizenship of the truck���s owners is a ���fundamental threshold issue��� that must be addressed. ���Although this may be a case in which sealing the identities of upstream owners may be justified,��� the holding company must provide the litigant with a redacted list of individuals or entities.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv480, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Tort, Discovery