Category: Louisiana

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, June 16, 2022

In this asbestos matter, the plaintiffs allege that James Becnel was exposed to asbestos at the Avondale Shipyards in 1965. Recently, several defendants filed summary judgment motions to dismiss the plaintiffs’ state law tort claims, including Becnel’s employer and its insurers. The defendants alleged that the plaintiffs’ state law tort claims were preempted by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA). Ultimately, the court agreed as “the LHWCA preempts a plaintiff’s occupational …

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, June 8, 2022

In April 2022, Hopeman filed the instant motion for partial summary judgment arguing that the plaintiffs’ intentional tort claim must be dismissed because they cannot provide evidentiary support that it consciously desired to afflict the decedent with primary lung cancer or knew that his cancer was substantially certain to follow from its actions. The plaintiffs opposed, arguing that Hopeman knew of the hazards of asbestos and that the decedent’s disease was substantially …

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, April 18, 2022

In this case, the plaintiff moved for summary judgment as to general causation of his mesothelioma diagnosis. Eight defendants filed five oppositions to the plaintiff’s motion; however, they largely did not challenge the plaintiff’s mesothelioma diagnosis or asbestos as its cause. Rather, they contested specific causation or “the sources of plaintiff’s exposure, the asbestos fiber types to which he was exposed, and whether particular products or defendants are responsible for causing his …

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, March 14, 2022               

The plaintiff, Marsha Roussell, filed an asbestos-related lawsuit alleging that she was secondarily exposed to asbestos via work performed by her father, Asward Theriot, and her uncle, Tracy Theriot, which caused her to be diagnosed with mesothelioma. Plaintiff alleged her father and uncle worked with products manufactured by defendant ViacomCBS, Inc., f/k/a CBS Corporation, f/k/a Viacom Inc., successor by merger to CBS Corporation, f/k/a Westinghouse Electric Corporation while employed at Avondale Shipyard at …

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, December 20, 2021

The plaintiff filed suit alleging that he was diagnosed with mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos spanning from the 1950s to 1980s, including take-home exposure from his father’s and brother’s work at Avondale Shipyards, personal exposure from his own work at Avondale from 1969 to 1972, and person exposure from his work for the defendant, Pelnor, from 1974 to 1983.

Pelnor filed a motion for partial summary judgment arguing that the …

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, November 10, 2021

In this asbestos action, plaintiff Dennis Bouck alleged that he developed mesothelioma as a result of repairing locomotives and locomotive parts while working for Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) from 1964 to 2007.

The plaintiff commenced an action against KCSR, as well as various product manufacturers. The court previously found that the Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA) preempted the plaintiff’s defective design and failure to warn state law claims against the product manufacturers. …