31 results for 'judge:"Currault"'.
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. 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. 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
J. Currault awards sanctions of $9,000 in attorney fees and costs to three health care companies and against a collective suit of patient-care employees alleging violations of federal labor laws, including overtime and mealtime. Although the health care companies sought $18,000 for the employees’ alleged violations of discovery rules, that was reduced due to the use of “block billing,” which made ‘“it impossible for the court to determine the reasonableness of the hours spent on each task’.”
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv1515, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Civil Procedure, Discovery, Attorney Fees
J. Currault grants a discovery request by an intervening law firm seeking to recover a lien amount from a male former client named G.K. who won a judgment against another man on allegations of false representation of his HIV status to induce unprotected sex resulting in the former client’s infection. The intervening firm says its seeking information about another lawyer or lawyers it says represented G.K., resulting from the firm’s withdrawal in the H.I.V. case. G.K.’s unsubstantiated objections are improper, and he must produce the requested documents, if they exist.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv2242, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Discovery, Attorney Fees
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J. Currault grants summary judgment to the Secretary of the Army, dismissing an engineering technician’s Title VII employment claims of sex, religion, age, and disability discrimination and complaints of a hostile work environment. The Corps of Engineers has presented substantial evidence, including sworn declarations of the technician’s supervisors, coworkers and HR representatives, that undermine her allegations. The technician failed to come forward with any evidence in response.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv3333, NOS: Federal Employers’ Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Government
J. Currault grants requests by the former owners of a bankrupt clinical laboratory, ordering a creditor suing them for fraud to respond with full and complete answers to discovery questions for the owners’ counterclaims. The creditor’s reference to court filings and memoranda are improper. Complaints and briefs are not verified and, therefore, do not provide admissible evidence, unlike a response to an interrogatory.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2570, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Discovery
J. Currault denies a request by a Chevron plant to dismiss a 52-year-old white supervisor’s employment discrimination claims based on his race, sex and age. He alleges he was subjected to increased scrutiny, disparate treatment and required to work excessive shifts to force him out so his employer could further its diversity efforts by promoting younger minority workers. At the current stage of the litigation, his allegations allow him to proceed on his discrimination claims based on race, gender and age.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv7203, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Evidence
J. Currault finds for the insurer of a coastal Louisiana hospital district, finding its policy does not cover the medical facility’s loss of income resulting from the state’s suspension of non-emergency procedures during the initial months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. A proper reading of the policy’s communicable disease provision means a disease outbreak must occur at the insured premises, not from people infected from an outbreak elsewhere who show up to the hospital for medical treatment. The hospital’s infectious disease control manager testified it was not until the end of 2021 or 2022 that she reported several hospital-acquired Covid-19 cases, and both dates are past the relevant policy period.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv689, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Business Expectancy, Covid-19
J. Currault grants a request by a New Orleans property owner, ordering her insurer to produce written materials pertaining to her claim for damages by Hurricane Ida. The insurer’s nine-month delay in the production of documents identified in the court’s discovery protocols is improper. Likewise, the insurer’s discovery responses, most of which reflect boilerplate, unsubstantiated objections, are insufficient.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv761, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Discovery
J. Currault grants a request by a T.J. Maxx store allowing it to withdraw admissions to facts that had been deemed admitted when it responded past a deadline to a litigant's discovery requests for her slip and fall suit. Allowing the store to withdraw the deemed admissions at the early stage of the litigation is proper. Withdrawal of the deemed admissions is favored, as it will allow for resolution of the litigant's suit on its merits rather than procedural error. Further, withdrawal will not hurt the litigant's case, despite her protests of the store counsel's "abuses of professional courtesies."
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv5020, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Tort, Discovery
J. Currault denies requests by Amazon and Whole Foods to bar counsel for parents of an autistic child from quizzing corporate representatives on specific topics in upcoming depositions for a baby food contamination suit. Considering the parents’ negligence and sale nullification claims against the food retailers are overly broad, the ruling restricts, rather than strikes, certain deposition topics, such as any due diligence the corporations performed regarding heavy metals in products that allegedly contributed to their child’s developmental disorder.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv551, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Evidence, Health Care, Negligence
J. Currault grants, in part, a motion to compel filed by a Texas oil and gas pipeline company, ordering the lessee of 27 oyster beds in Louisiana to produce financial records for its eminent domain suit. The pipeline company, an affiliate of the leaseholder, seeks to condemn the lessee’s rights to oyster beds in a 69-acre area of coastal Louisiana in order to build pipeline facilities. The oyster leaseholder's historical financial information is relevant and proportional to the needs of the case.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5291, NOS: Land Condemnation - Real Property, Categories: Energy, Environment, Discovery
J. Currault grants a request by a motorist suing a trucking business to recover damages in a car collision case. The litigant claims the accident was caused by the truck driver’s negligence and raises claims against the owner of the rig for vicarious liability, as well as claims for its alleged failure to adequately hire, train and supervise the driver. The company cannot limit the litigant’s discovery to lane change maneuvers, as it has not established the evidence sought could have no conceivable relevance to any pending claim or defense.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv4037, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Discovery
J. Currault grants a request by an education technology company that provides classroom audio and camera systems, ordering a software development company to supplement its responses to more specifically identify the trade secrets that the technology company has allegedly stolen. A recently enacted rule requires a statement of a greater degree of particularity than the categories within which the trade secret information may fall, such as that set forth in the publicly available complaint, and more than simple generalized descriptions.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv2862, NOS: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Trade Secrets
J. Currault partially grants Burlington Insurance Company's motion to compel in an insurance dispute over losses incurred as a result of Hurricane Ida. The insurance company is entitled to an itemized account of the actual costs spent on repairs to the insured church's damaged property, rather than the initial estimates it was provided. The insurance company is also entitled to any documentation regarding donations from church members for time, labor or materials used in repairing the damaged property.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: November 2, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv1989, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Discovery
J. Currault finds in favor of the employee on his claims for race discrimination, harassment and retaliation under Title VII. The employee's claims are untimely, but even if they were not, he has not provided sufficient evidence to create a question as to whether he was discriminated against based on his race or subjected to a hostile work environment. He also has no evidence to establish retaliatory discharge.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: October 27, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv2488, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Currault denies a request by insurance giant Allstate to issue an order barring a former insurance agent from obtaining information about its contacts with his former clients for his breach of contract suit. Only Allstate communications with the agent’s customers who have non-Allstate products are relevant to his remaining claims alleging the insurer engaged in certain fraudulent statements or unfair trade practices after he was fired.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: October 10, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv2052, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Insurance, Discovery
J. Currault denies a request by shipping handlers in Southeast Asia to exclude, as time-barred, Goodyear’s proposal to add two more companies to its suit arising from alleged water damage to two shipments of processed natural rubber to New Orleans. Adding the two companies to the suit does not harm the other allegedly responsible litigants and does not impose “unwarranted burdens” on the court.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: October 5, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv4561, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Transportation, Damages, Contract
J. Currault grants a request by the owner of a tree service, ordering a litigant to submit to a medical examination related to his personal injury suit against the business after the hydraulic steel legs of a truck were lowered onto his right foot. The litigant cites no authority that would preclude an examining physician for the tree service from obtaining his relevant history. Further, the litigant has placed his physical condition — specifically, his foot, ankle, knee and back — at issue by seeking to recover damages for those injuries allegedly resulting from the tree service’s negligence.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv4570, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Tort, Discovery
J. Currault grants a request by a downtown hotel in New Orleans and orders its insurance company to provide more responsive answers to its written questions for its “bad faith” claim alleging that the insurer reserved extracontractual damages before arbitration of its contract related to hurricane damage claims. Although courts are divided on the relevance of reserves information in such cases alleging bad faith, the majority of courts have determined that such information is relevant for discovery purposes. Whether reserve information is admissible at trial is a separate inquiry from whether it is discoverable.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv1071, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Discovery, Privilege
J. Currault denies a request for a stay of all discovery submitted by the foreign owners of a tanker under investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard for environmental crimes. A stay of discovery is not appropriate in the case, and accordingly, discovery will proceed expeditiously. The government has established “peculiar” circumstances justifying holding the depositions outside of the home countries of the ship owner and the shipping company.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv2305, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Environment, Maritime, Discovery
J. Currault denies a request by a refinery to dismiss a race and gender workplace discrimination complaint by a Black woman who was fired from the plant. The refinery unsuccessfully argued that the woman’s claims are time-barred because she filed suit 18 days after a 300-day deadline for filing an EEOC charge. Based on the undisputed evidence, the ruling cannot establish that the woman failed to timely deliver her EEOC charge. In addition, the fired employee provided factual information regarding her complaints about women having inadequate facilities, e.g. a shower and restroom, as compared to men.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: July 7, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv858, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Evidence, Employment Discrimination
J. Currault grants a request by United Parcel Service (UPS), ordering a Target employee to question a UPS driver at the UPS headquarters at Atlanta, not in the New Orleans area where the Target employee was allegedly injured when the UPS driver moved his truck. The Target employee has offered no reason to justify departure from holding his deposition at the UPS Atlanta headquarters.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv392, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction, Discovery
J. Currault grants a Louisiana power company leave to amend its claims arising from damage to its waterfront facility by breakaway barges on the Mississippi River. The power company established good cause to amend its claims after a litigation deadline, based on discovery responses from owners of vessels, barges and equipment involved in the maritime accident.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv504, NOS: Other Personal Property Damage - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Maritime, Negligence, Discovery