21 results for 'judge:"Summerhays"'.
J. Summerhays awards $248,000 to a deckhand on a shrimp boat against the vessel’s owner for injuries sustained in an allision. The employer deliberately failed to investigate the seaman’s injury claim that the captain of the boat had been drinking and the vessel was traveling at approximately 40 mph when it struck an oil platform. The employer also failed to respond to the injured seaman’s suit and “callously” failed to provide the injured deckhand with medical benefits and living expenses during his recovery.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 6:19cv1442, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Maritime, Damages
J. Summerhays refuses to dismiss punitive damages claims by a police officer who alleges the police chief violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for warning the public about criminal activity at a Knights of Columbus Hall, managed by the chief’s personal friends. The chief placed him under investigation for a department violation when the off-duty officer used his personal Facebook page to warn the public that there would be a shooting at the local KC Hall, which in fact occurred hours later. The officer’s allegations satisfy the requirements for penalty damages.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 6:20cv1063, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Damages, Police Misconduct
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
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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. 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. Summerhays finds a disaster recovery business is liable for the unpaid overtime wages of seven former employees who have been awaiting more than five years to get paid. Owners of the company, which hires dozens of disaster relief workers in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, argued that they were required to pay the litigating workers half of their regular rate for overtime work, which “clearly violates” the Fair Labor Standards Act. Because the workers have sufficiently shown their entitlement to unpaid half-time wages, and their employers have not sustained their burden of showing that their failure to obey the Act was in good faith, the ex-employees are awarded liquidated damages. The principal owner of the company said he failed to respond to the Louisiana suit because it “slipped [his] mind” during an investigation of his company’s labor practices in Puerto Rico.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: September 29, 2023, Case #: 6:18cv1410, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Labor
J. Summerhayes denies a request by a prosecutor to dismiss claims of misconduct by a former criminal defendant who alleges he spent 44 years in prison for two rapes he did not commit. The former defendant contends the prosecutor fabricated a police report to defeat his alibi evidence. The creation and use of fake evidence constitutes investigative conduct for which an individual prosecutor would not be absolutely immune. The former defendant was freed after a state judge held that due process violations deprived him of a fair trial.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: September 28, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1971, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Malicious Prosecution, Immunity, Due Process
J. Summerhays grants requests by a parish District Attorney and his assistant D.A. who also is a tribal prosecutor, dismissing malicious prosecution claims against them by a former elected tribal leader of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, who was acquitted of criminal charges related to his former employment at a casino owned by the tribe. “Absolute” prosecutorial immunity bars the tribal leader’s state-law claims against the prosecutors. “There is no dispute that [the tribal leader] was the subject of criminal proceedings, which resulted in his acquittal.” The tribal official’s suit attempted to show that the prosecutors engaged in a frivolous investigation, fabricated evidence, and used perjured testimony at his trial.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: September 22, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv404, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Fraud, Malicious Prosecution
J. Summerhays dismisses all claims brought by a construction company against an insurance underwriter in a breach of contract lawsuit following salvage operations for a sunken barge. The underwriters, incorrectly named in the suit, have met their burden of proving that they did not underwrite the policy in question or assume the risks therein. Another insurer underwrote the policy at issue and it is therefore responsible for its share of risk obligations.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv6234, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Summerhays grants summary judgment to a Mississippi-based oil and gas company on its request that a surplus line insurer provide indemnification against an adverse Texas court judgment. The ruling finds that the insurer’s withdrawal of coverage as to the claims against the energy company constitutes a breach of the policy’s insuring agreements. Despite “vehement” arguments by the insurance company, its request to dismiss the energy company’s suit is rejected “in all respects.”
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: September 7, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv2012, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Insurance, Indemnification
J. Summerhays denies summary judgment to a global services contractor for private industry and the U.S. government on a top executive’s claim he was wrongly discharged, during the course of medical treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injury, arising from his military service in Iraq. The record casts doubt on the corporation’s “proffered reasons” for the executive’s termination — his alleged poor performance and the company’s reorganization. A reasonable juror could conclude the company’s explanations were a pretext for his firing.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 6:20cv192, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Health Care, Employment Retaliation
J. Summerhays denies a request by the former CEO of a hospice center to dismiss fraud claims by its insurance company, finding the insurer has alleged sufficient facts to support allegations that the top executive defrauded his employer over a four-year period by using his corporate American Express credit card to charge more than $500,000 worth of personal expenditures to and engaged in a variety of fraudulent activities to conceal his wrongdoing.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: August 1, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv690, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Fraud, Contract
J. Summerhays denies summary judgment to Home Depot on its argument that two customers, allegedly injured by falling PVC pipes, have not produced any evidence — such as W2 forms, pay stubs or bank records — to support wage loss claims arising from their respective post-accident back surgeries. The store customers’ claim for loss of past earnings need not be proven with “mathematical certainty.” Their deposition testimony that they missed three months of work in order to recover from surgery creates a genuine issue of material fact as to lost earnings.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv642, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Damages
J. Summerhays denies Shell USA’s request for reconsideration of an order remanding to state court a southwestern Louisiana coastal parish government’s suit alleging Shell’s oil and gas exploration activities violated state rules and permits. The ruling agrees with a decision in a similar suit in the Eastern District of Louisiana that the connection between a refining contract and production activities in the field is too attenuated to support removing the case to federal jurisdiction based on federal government requirements.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 2:18cv688, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Environment, Jurisdiction
J. Summerhays denies summary judgment to the so-called “White Hat plaintiffs,” environmentalists and other activists protesting a controversial pipeline project on a Louisiana bayou. The court rejects their arguments that a “critical infrastructure” law, amended by oil lobbyists after their protest to provide prison time for trespassing on property marked for pipeline construction, is unconstitutional. The law expressly excludes protected First Amendment expressive conduct from the statute’s prohibitions. To the extent that they seek a declaration that the law is unconstitutional as applied to future anticipated protests of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, “the White Hat plaintiffs lack a constitutionally protected right to protest on private property.” Violators of the amended trespassing law face up to five years in prison and $1,000 in fines.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: June 5, 2023, Case #: 6:20-cv-00983, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Construction, Environment
J. Summerhays grants remand to the joint owners of a 35-acre tract in rural Church Point, Louisiana, transferring to state court their environmental property damage suit against Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Chevron-owned companies and Hess Corp. The corporations unsuccessfully argued for federal jurisdiction on grounds that ARCO, a Texas citizen, was improperly added to the suit by the property owners, a Louisiana woman and a Texas corporation based in Louisiana. The landowners prevailed by showing that the terms of a 1953 operating agreement “explicitly” provide that the sued companies, including ARCO, are proportionately liable for damages to related to their oil and gas operations. The landowners have stated “a viable claim against ARCO, even if they do not ultimately prevail.”
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv6190, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Environment, Damages, Jurisdiction