51 results for 'judge:"Cain "'.
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. 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. 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. 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
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J. Cain grants the Army's motion to dismiss this employment discrimination case. The black, female, mentally-challenged administrative assistant says her position description was changed in order to harass and discriminate against her. She says additional duties were not consistent with those assigned to others in her position and her work performance was continually scrutinized. The employee fails to offer allegations or evidence that other employees are valid comparators. The absence of minorities in upper-level positions does not prove discrimination without the comparison.
Court: USDC South Carolina Aiken, Judge: Cain , Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 3:21cv3708, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination
J. Cain grants the bank's motion for summary judgment on the breach of contract claim. The putative customer class alleges the bank improperly imposed fees for electronic bank transactions. The regional bank maintains locations only in Michigan and Ohio, and South Carolina's Door Closing Statute preventing the named individual from representing out-of-state plaintiffs precludes certification of the putative classes.
Court: USDC South Carolina Aiken, Judge: Cain , Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 7:20cv1948, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Banking / Lending, Class Action, Contract
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. 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
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. 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 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. 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. Cain denies a request by an insurer to dismiss bad faith claims by a small rural church against the self-described ���leading insurer of religious organizations of all denominations.��� The litigants have shown the insurer adjuster failed to inspect the roof or all buildings on the property after Hurricane Laura hit the Lake Charles area in 2020, despite being unable to confirm the source of water staining on ceiling tiles.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv3551, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Settlements, Damages
J. Cain grants a request by the Roman Catholic diocese of Lake Charles to enforce a settlement of coverage claims with its insurer arising from the diocese���s allegations that employees of the insurer���s mitigation company created more destruction of its insured properties than what had been caused by Hurricane Laura, including stealing computers and equipment, removal and destruction of items not damaged, and leaving certain buildings exposed creating more water intrusion. Contrary to the insurer���s argument, an email from the insurer���s counsel did not revoke an agreement between the litigants. Previous emails show there had already been a meeting of the minds regarding a settlement.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv3480, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Settlements, Damages
J. Cain denies a request by a syndicate of insurers to order a small Louisiana town to arbitrate bad faith penalties and breach of contract claims on the argument that arbitration is required by international treaty. The town has dismissed the only two foreign insurers from its suit; therefore, the remaining domestic insurers��� arbitration agreements are reverse-preempted by Louisiana law, which prohibits arbitration agreements in insurance policies covering property within the state, such as the town's hurricane-damaged properties.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv240, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, International Law, Choice Of Law
J. Cain grants summary judgment to a maritime construction company, finding an employee who was injured while working on its crane barge is not a seaman and, therefore, not entitled to a seaman���s benefits. His exclusive remedy against his employer is found under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act as a land-based maritime worker.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 12, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv1111, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Maritime, Tort
J. Cain denies a request by Eli Lilly to dismiss a Louisiana woman���s claims the pharmaceutical giant failed to warn her that its drug for Type 2 diabetes was associated with gastroparesis, a gastric disorder with side effects so severe her teeth fell out from extreme vomiting. Lilly contends the litigant���s claim is preempted by FDA approval of its drug because she cannot show the existence of newly acquired information justifying a unilateral label change. However, post-approval reports from summer 2023 point to a growing awareness of the condition as an adverse effect of the drug���s use. It is too early in the litigation to determine whether the recent reports reflect an increasing incidence of gastroparesis that might qualify for a post-approval warning label.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv1020, NOS: Personal Injury - Health Care/Pharmaceutical Personal Injury/Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Product Liability
J. Cain denies a request by a Texas-based law firm seeking to intervene in a former client���s suit against an insurer, rejecting the firm���s attempt to recover attorneys��� fees and out-of-pocket expenses expended on the case after its lawyers were suspended from the practice of law in Louisiana on misconduct allegations. The litigant argues, and the court agrees, that she dismissed the disgraced law firm for cause. She never spoke with an attorney from the law firm about the retention agreement, and although she received an email telling her they were filing a lawsuit on her behalf, she never spoke to an attorney about the decision to file suit.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv3388, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Damages, Attorney Fees, Attorney Discipline
J. Cain awards $43,000 in damages to an 88-year-old widow suffering from dementia and against a mortgage company for negligence and mental anguish. The company refused to release $47,000 in insurance proceeds to repair her hurricane-damaged home, arguing Louisiana law requires a homeowner to hire a licensed contractor to make home repairs. The purpose of this statute is to regulate contractors in the state of Louisiana, not homeowners.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 6:21-cv-03650, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Damages, Contract
J. Cain dismisses a family's civil rights case against police officers who shot the decedent, a wanted suspect, 14 times in his brother's home. The officers saw a gun on the floor after their decedent had been shot in the wrist and tased, while video evidence shows the decedent reaching across his body with his left hand and pulling the object he has retrieved toward his midsection. A reasonable officer in these circumstances could have believed the decedent had retrieved the gun and determined lethal force to be necessary.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv249, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Wrongful Death, Police Misconduct