23 results for 'judge:"Morgan"'.
J. Morgan denies a request by an Illinois-based insurer to compel arbitration of a dispute with a New Orleans-based law firm for its defense and indemnity from a lawsuit in the state of California. That the underlying litigation is in California is an insufficient reason to trigger the application of California law. Louisiana’s policy interests would be most seriously impaired if its law were not applied.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv6235, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Choice Of Law
J. Morgan denies summary judgment to a pest control company and its employee who allegedly hit a bicyclist while trying to park in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter. The company argues the bicyclist was peddling the wrong way on the street, adding he is solely at fault for the accident and his injuries. However, a partial ruling would not settle the question of liability and other issues, such as whether the cyclist bears any blame for the accident and his injuries.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv3870, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Negligence
J. Morgan refuses to dismiss for insufficient evidence conspiracy and excessive force claims filed by a black woman who stands 4-foot 8-inches tall and weighs less than 100 pounds. The woman claims that she was walking home after being attacked by teenagers when the deputy, who was responding to a 911 call about a fight, grabbed her by the hair, lifted her off the ground and slammed her to the ground. He remains on the force despite an alleged history of disciplinary infractions and public complaints of excessive force against minorities. She has sufficiently stated a “causal link” between the allegedly deliberately indifferent practices of the sheriff’s office and the deputy’s use of excessive force against her.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv3332, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Evidence, Police Misconduct
J. Morgan reverses, in part, a magistrate's denial of an inmate's motion concerning spoliation of evidence. Although four prison guards argue they lost surveillance video and body scans that justified four days of fruitless searching of an inmate suspected of inserting contraband in his rectum, there is evidence the guards acted with the intent to deprive the inmate of the photos for use in his excessive force suit against them. Furthermore, the body scans the prison produced were not of the inmate.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2680, NOS: Prison Condition - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Evidence, Discovery, Prisoners' Rights
J. Morgan denies a petition by operators of a parish landfill to dismiss its neighbors’ discovery requests for pollution concentration reports and documents on toxic chemicals for its environmental contamination suit. The documents requested by litigants constitute fact work product, which contain no “mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories of an attorney.” Litigants also have demonstrated need and exceptional circumstances that prevent them from obtaining the same information by other means.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 8, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Civil Procedure, Environment, Discovery
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J. Morgan denies immunity to four prison officers who allegedly violated an inmate’s constitutional right to basic hygiene and sanitation during his four-day confinement to a “dry cell.” The officers suspected the inmate stored contraband in his rectum, repeatedly ordered him to ingest laxatives, perform bowel movements in full restraints, submit to strip-searches, and undergo x-rays; however, no contraband was found.
According to the inmate’s undisputed account, he was denied a shower, not allowed to wash his hands or brush his teeth, and had to eat near an open bucket of human waste.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2680, NOS: Prison Condition - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity, Police Misconduct
J. Morgan grants a discovery request by suburban New Orleans area residents suing landfill operators for foul odors emitted from 2017 to 2019. The landfill owners are ordered to turn over documents they had declared protected from disclosure by the attorney work product doctrine. Following a private review of the requested records, 22 withheld invoices and certain documents contain no “mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories of an attorney.”
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Civil Procedure, Environment, Discovery
J. Morgan grants a request by parish residents, ordering operators of a landfill to produce hundreds of documents without redactions for their suit alleging the dump fouled the air in their area from 2017 to 2019. Lawyers for the landfill argued with limited success that they properly withheld the records under attorney-client privilege doctrines. The requested records pertained to work the landfill operators performed during the ordinary course of business, rather than in anticipation of litigation, as attorneys for the dump unsuccessfully argued.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Communications, Environment, Government
J. Morgan grants a request by domestic and foreign insurers to arbitrate hurricane damage claims by a condominium association and stays its policy coverage suit pending out-of-court negotiations. The condo association argued the arbitration provision is against state public policy because Louisiana law generally prohibits arbitration agreements in insurance policies governing property within the state. While the court recently held that state law provides an exception to the prohibition on arbitration clauses to surplus lines carriers, such as the condo owners’ insurers, the provision cited is applicable at the award-enforcement stage only. Therefore, the association’s argument is premature.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv3546, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Insurance, Jurisdiction
J. Morgan orders lawyers for both sides of a high-profile wrongful termination suit not to ask to “follow” or “friend” any juror or potential juror on social networking sites during jury selection or trial. Both sides are also ordered not to attempt to gain access to Internet posts or profiles that are “not otherwise publicly available.” It is both standard and accepted practice in Louisiana courts to conduct open-source internet research of potential jurors. The trial court has broad discretion to manage jury selection, to maintain fairness and to protect privacy.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Morgan, Filed On: October 11, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv198, NOS: Education - Civil Rights, Categories: Communications, Jury, Racketeering
J. Morgan grants a request by Louisiana’s attorney general to dismiss a lawsuit by a group of website operators challenging a state civil law aimed at porn sites. The suit alleges Louisiana requires websites to “age-verify” Internet users 18 and over before providing access to content that meets the State’s allegedly “murky” definition of “material harmful to minors.” The law’s definition of harmful “material” includes “sexual intercourse masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act.” The suing group of website operators and content providers fail to meet their burden of establishing that an exception to the state’s sovereign immunity applies to their claims.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv2123, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Immunity, Jurisdiction
J. Morgan finds the trial court properly denied defendants' motion to introduce evidence that would have implicated alternative suspects for the robberies and murders. The evidence was not exculpatory for either defendant and was, therefore, inadmissible under North Carolina law. Affirmed.
Court: North Carolina Supreme Court, Judge: Morgan, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 334A21, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Robbery
J. Morgan finds the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to disqualify the judge during his murder case because of his involvement in a previous criminal case against defendant's mother. None of the evidence or information in that trial had any bearing on the crimes committed by defendant and could not have resulted in bias or prejudice. Meanwhile, the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to exclude many of the 88 photos of the 3-year-old victim because, while graphic and, in some cases, repetitive, all of the pictures were used alongside testimony from treating physicians and other witnesses, and were used to establish elements of the crimes. Affirmed.
Court: North Carolina Supreme Court, Judge: Morgan, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 272A14, Categories: Death Penalty, Evidence, Murder
J. Morgan orders arbitration in this lawsuit where an insurer was sued for bad faith by its insured, a social organization over its hurricane damage claims, which total almost $1.3 million. The social club argues that the service of suit clause of an international arbitration law acts as a waiver of the foreign insurer’s right to compel arbitration, but the court finds this argument unpersuasive.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv1689, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, International Law, Damages
J. Morgan grants a request by Scandinavian Airlines, dismissing for lack of jurisdiction a personal injury suit by a Louisiana resident who allegedly fell to the ground and broke her leg when disembarking the airline’s aircraft in Oslo, Norway. The passenger argues her claim arises from the airline’s sale of a plane ticket to her in her home state of Louisiana, which should be the forum state for her suit. The court disagrees: Her suit arises from the alleged negligent conduct, which occurred in Oslo.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv1591, NOS: Airplane - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Transportation, Tort, Jurisdiction
J. Morgan denies the motion to stay remand brought by a hospital network accused of violating Louisiana’s wiretapping law, pending appeal of her order returning a potential class-action suit to state court. The nonprofit hospital system is unable to show a strong likelihood it will prevail on its defense to the suit’s allegations it used “tracking pixels” on its websites to transmit patients’ communications to companies like Facebook and Google, who could then use the personal medical information for targeted advertising. The hospital system cannot prevail on its defense that it acted under federal direction, because no federal directive existed.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv411, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Evidence, Health Care
J. Morgan grants summary judgment to the employer of a temporary laborer who claims he was injured while working in an offshore oil field removing marsh grass and other hurricane debris from oil and gas platforms. The laborer cannot recover for his injuries because he does not qualify for seaman status under maritime law and he has no claim for vessel negligence.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: July 18, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv2213, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Maritime, Tort
J. Morgan grants a request by an ex-employee of the Louisiana State University athletic department to question a former football head coach about his role in a sexual harassment scandal that rocked the state’s flagship university. The woman may depose the coach on two topics: whether he subjected her to a hostile work environment and retaliation and retaliation; and concealment of his alleged sexual harassment and Title IX violations between 2013 and 2016 and in 2021.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Morgan, Filed On: May 18, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv198, NOS: Education - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Discovery, Racketeering