179 results for 'court:"USDC Western District of Louisiana "'.
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
J. Cain denies a request by Louisiana and other energy-producing states to halt the Biden administration���s implementation of a 2023 rule of the Clean Water Act that expands states��� responsibility for enforcement of environmental regulations. Litigant states argue the rule is unlawful and will be expensive for states to enforce. It is in the public interest to allow the rule to remain in effect pending a review of the merits of the states��� suit against the EPA.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv01714, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Environment, Government
J. Cain denies summary judgment to an insurer that paid more than $8.4 million in hurricane damage claims to a nonprofit corporation providing housing for the physically and mentally disabled. The nonprofit seeks statutory penalty amounts for bad faith, arising from allegedly untimely payments of the policy proceeds. The record shows there was ���significant back and forth communication��� between the nonprofit���s general contractors, the insurer���s adjusters and the insurer regarding the payment of various expenses. Whether any one payment was withheld or delayed in an arbitrary and capricious manner in violation of the statutes is dependent upon the facts known to the insurer at the time of its actions.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv3042, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Damages, Experts
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J. Doughty denies summary judgment to three natural gas pipeline companies on their argument they are statutory employers under Louisiana law and, therefore, immune from a Texas-based contract worker���s personal injuries claims arising from his fall from a catwalk collapse. She did not have personal or corporate knowledge of the trio���s legal relationship and control of the injured worker at the time of her testimony. Therefore, her testimony will not be considered. The pipeline companies are unable to prove they are statutory employers barred from the worker���s suit under Louisiana law.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv328, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Tort
J. Leblanc grants a request by the owner of a medical office building damaged by back-to-back hurricanes in 2020, ordering its insurer to produce corporate deposition transcripts from other litigation related to the two storms. The insurer argued the property owner���s request was irrelevant and disproportionate to the needs of the case. The prior sworn testimony of the insurer when limited to particular matters is relevant and may lead to discoverable information, particularly regarding claims handling practices.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Leblanc, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv05724, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Insurance, Discovery
J. Walter grants a request by a Texas fabricating and manufacturing company to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds claims arising from a contract product liability suit brought against a Louisiana design business by a fiberglass factory, also located in Texas. The Louisiana company alleges the fabricator is responsible for making parts of two 111-feet ventilation stacks for the fiberglass factory, one of which blew over from about 35-feet above ground level, damaging the plant below. The only performance of the contract in Louisiana was done by the design company located in Shreveport. The Texas-based fabrication plant did not purposefully avail itself of the privilege of conducting business within Louisiana or invoke the benefits and protections of Louisiana law. Therefore, the Louisiana court does not have jurisdiction over the Texas stack-builder.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Walter, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: 5:22cv5837, NOS: Contract Product Liability - Contract, Categories: Product Liability, Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Summerhays grants a request by an oilfield service company, dismissing unfair trade practice claims against a former business partner involved in the development and marketing of a a flowback tank system used in the oilfield. Despite its use of buzzwords, such as "misleading" and
"deceiving," the company has not sufficiently alleged an unfair trade practices claim.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 6:20cv581, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Copyright, Energy, Business Practices
J. Summerhays grants a request by an insurance company for a truck driver and his employer, conditionally reducing a jury award of $2.9 million to a motorist seriously injured in an accident. The jury���s award of $500,000 for future medical expenses is not supported by evidence and, therefore, is reduced to $291,000. However, the litigant has the right to reject the reduction and elect to submit to a new trial on the future medical expenses portion of the case.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 6:19cv56, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Tort, Damages
J. Hicks grants a request by a hospital service district to strike the trial by jury demand of a father suing a district-owned hospital for allegedly failing to give his 13-year-old son a thorough medical examination, resulting in his death the day after discharge. Since adoption of the Seventh Amendment in 1791, federal courts have consistently held there is no right to a jury trial against a political subdivision. The hospital, which originally requested a jury trial, may have a judge-only trial instead.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Hicks, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 5:22-cv-00171, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Health Care, Jury
J. Hicks denies summary judgment to a hospital on its argument a father offers no evidence to prove its emergency room failed to give his 13-year-old son an appropriate medical screening. After the hospital discharged the boy after a diagnosis of a genital yeast infection, the child died the next day from diabetic ketoacidosis. Several key contested facts relate to the father���s medical screening complaint, including whether his son���s exam was tailored to his chief complaint at the emergency room: consecutive days of vomiting. The factual determination will be for the trier of fact at trial, not summary judgment.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Hicks, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 5:22cv171, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Evidence, Health Care
J. Cain grants summary judgment to the owner of a casino and hotel, and against an elevator passenger whose negligence suit alleges the five-floor lift malfunctioned, triggering a series of abrupt, nonviolent drops, stops and starts. Based on an elevator expert's testimony, there is no inference of negligence or breach of duty by the casino.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv174, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Negligence, Experts
J. Joseph grants summary judgment to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the U.S. Small Business Administration, finding the federal agency correctly determined an oil field service company was ineligible for a pandemic-program business loan it received in the amount of $2.5 million. The SBA correctly determined the business qualified for a maximum loan forgiveness amount of $687,000, and its decision was not arbitrary and capricious. The company���s interpretation of the law would require an erroneous finding the federal loan program would allow ���double dipping,��� or permitting small businesses and their contractors to count the same amounts twice to obtain multiple loans.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 6:22cv6229, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Government, Business Expectancy, Covid-19
J. Summerhays denies summary judgment to a city-parish government on vicarious liability claims arising from state law excessive force allegations by an intoxicated armed robbery suspect against his arresting officer. The cop was fired for violating the police department���s use of force policy after he was caught on videotape punching the handcuffed suspect���s face and head seven times in rapid succession outside the entrance to the jail. Vicarious liability does not apply to federal civil rights claims.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 6:21cv4131, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, Insurance, Police Misconduct
J. Cain grants a request by a rural parish sheriff dismissing all civil rights claims, including police excessive force, by a 60-year-old disabled woman with bone cancer. Her civil rights claims are barred under the doctrine of Heck v. Humphrey, which requires that damages for constitutional violations must be based on reversal or invalidation of the conviction. The woman received a four-year suspended prison sentence after pleading no-contest to a first-offense charge of illegal distribution of an anti-anxiety narcotic.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5689, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Damages, Police Misconduct
J. Cain denies a request by a Texas-based law firm to reject a lower court���s recommendations that it be barred from intervening in a former client���s suit to recover fees and out-of-pocket expenses prior to its lawyers��� suspension from the practice in Louisiana for using modern-day runners to get clients, a state-law felony. The firm unsuccessfully argued the magistrate judge exceeded her authority and failed to apply the correct legal standards in her report. However, the ruling agrees with the magistrate judge���s conclusions the firm���s assertions fail to support its request for intervention and that the firm has acted with so little regard for the rules of ethics and professional conduct that it deprived itself of the ability to provide any meaningful service to clients with legitimate claims.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Walter, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv4071, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Attorney Fees, Attorney Discipline
J. Joseph denies a request by the corporate operator of a community water system and its insurer to stay a potential class action by customers who allege they are being harmed by the company's failure to adhere to drinking water laws and regulations. Specifically, the ruling rejects the corporation's petition to refer the environmental suit's claims to the Louisiana Department of Health for the regulatory agency's opinion regarding whether the water the supplier provides is fit for human consumption. The argument that this case involves complex factual and scientific questions that are outside the court's conventional experience is unpersuasive.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 6:23cv401, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Health Care, Experts
J. Doughty denies summary judgment to an insurer on its argument that a criminal act exclusion provision of its law enforcement coverage policy precludes its payment of a $421,000 judgment against a sheriff's office after a jury found a deputy liable for failing to stop a fellow officer from striking an detainee. The deputy was not found to have committed a criminal act and, therefore, has no connection his fellow officer���s state law criminal charge.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv866, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Insurance, Police Misconduct
J. Whitehurst grants an award of $5,000 in attorney fees and costs to a motorist and against a rental car business and a claims adjuster for allegedly stonewalling his requests for information in his car collision case. Their ���egregious use of boilerplate objections" and failure to provide a useful privilege log, among other things, resulted in the litigant���s counsel���s expenditure of 23 hours of unnecessary legal work. As result, he did not learn the identity of the responsible insurer until more than one year after filing suit.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Whitehurst, Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: 6:23cv32, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Insurance, Attorney Fees
J. Doughty grants summary judgment to an online delivery-service platform, dismissing claims in a class action that the company did not act in good faith when it offered new contract terms to certain restaurants. The service did not force the litigant-restaurants to sign a new contract with the higher rate. Instead, it offered the restaurants three new options, to which they could have opted out, but voluntarily decided to continue using. Although a higher rate is inconvenient, in this case, it is still below the industry standard and would not cause substantial hardship or detriment to the litigating restaurants.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 2:19cv552, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Class Action, Contract
J. Cain grants summary judgment to a district attorney, dismissing racially biased discharge claims by a black prosecutor from the previous political administration. The litigant complains the transition committee for the incoming district attorney raised infractions that had not previously been brought to his notice and attacks the affidavits of his former coworkers accusing him of falling short on various expectations. However, he fails to show different standards were applied to any similarly situated white employee.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv6109, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Evidence
J. Doughty grants a request by the state, dismissing Title VII claims for damages by a white former police captain who alleges he was forced to resign by the agency's black superintendent after declaring he purge the district he commanded of ���racist policing." Specifically, the ex-captain alleges the superintendent engaged in acts calculated to force his resignation including re-assigning him to a "career-ending position," authorizing internal affairs investigations of time-barred allegations, having him placed under surveillance and allowing leaks about the internal probes that falsely portrayed him as racist. The white ex-trooper's allegations are ���indeed concerning��� but he has failed to sufficiently allege facts showing he was compelled to resign.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv453, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Damages, Police Misconduct
J. Doughty finds for a Louisiana sheriff���s insurance plan and against the program���s surplus line insurance company. The company provided no evidence the sheriff���s plan failed to properly notify it of an indemnity claim for a $421,000 judgment in favor of an arrestee who was knocked unconscious by a deputy. Because the policy���s notification provisions are ambiguous, the meaning that provides coverage must be employed and the sheriff's plan provided notice in accordance with its insurers policy.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv886, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Indemnification, Police Misconduct
J. Cain grants a request for a preliminary injunction, barring the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice from enforcing any disparate impact mandates under Title VI laws against racial discrimination. The state of Louisiana has established an injury and, therefore, has standing to challenge the extra-regulatory requirements the EPA is imposing upon the state.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv692, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, Environment, Government
J. Joseph grants an award of $606,000 to a university student raped on a church retreat in 2018 and against her assailant, an international fugitive, who defaulted in the civil case by failing to appear. The victim, now a professional counselor, had requested $3.2 million in general damages and $2 million for loss of future income, but this was denied as speculative.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 6:21cv430, NOS: Assault, Libel, & Slander - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: International Law, Assault
J. Doughty grants a general contractor���s request and dismisses a shopping center���s breach of contract claim, arising from a contract dispute over $586,000 worth of storm-related roofing repairs. The shopping plaza is ordered to amend its complaint to address deficiencies in a related fraud claim against the roofer. It is self-evident that anything the plaza could get by prevailing on a declaratory judgment claim could not be obtained via the breach of contract claim. Furthermore, there is a likelihood of overlap between its declaratory judgment and fraud claims.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Doughty, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1191, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Construction, Fraud, Contract