U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana: Asbestos Cases

Our case-law library holds 353 asbestos decisions from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (1991–2025). Each links to our summary and the full opinion.

• Kind of court: Federal district court

Decisions

• Melancon v. Lamorak Insurance Company (2018). The court granted the Melancon family's motion to remand the case to state court, rejecting Huntington Ingalls' and the other defendants' federal officer removal.
• Michel v. Ford Motor Company (2018). The court granted Cummins's and Ford's motion to exclude plaintiffs' experts Dr. Brody and Dr. Castleman for late disclosure of their reports and denied plaintiffs' motion to amend the scheduling order.
• Michel v. Ford Motor Company (2018). The district court denied the plaintiffs' motion to remand, finding Louisiana defendant Taylor-Seidenbach was improperly joined and Cummins' removal was timely, so the case stays in federal court.
• Rivera v. Huntington Ingalls, Inc. (2018). The district court granted summary judgment to Huntington Ingalls (Avondale), joined by other defendants, and dismissed with prejudice Judith Punch Rivera's wrongful death and survival claims as prescribed.
• Rivera v. Huntington Ingalls, Inc. (2018). The court denied plaintiff Judith Punch Rivera's motion to remand, keeping the case in federal court under the Federal Officer Removal Statute and ruling for defendant Huntington Ingalls (Avondale).
• Rousseau v. Johnson & Johnson (2018). The court granted plaintiff Marilyn Rousseau's motion to remand and sent the case back to Louisiana state court, rejecting Johnson & Johnson's claim that the non-diverse defendant K&B was improperly joined.
• Schindler v. Dravo Basic Materials Company, Inc. (2018). The district court denied Dravo Basic Materials Company's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, so plaintiff Robert Schindler's Jones Act suit stays in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
• Uzee v. Huntington Ingalls Incorporated (2018). The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to remand to state court, finding that Avondale (Huntington Ingalls) timely removed but failed to show the causal nexus required for federal officer removal.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court ruled that Louisiana law, not Idaho law, governs both the survival claim and the wrongful death claim (including punitive damages) for the alleged Idaho exposures, favoring the plaintiffs' position on choice of law.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court ruled that, for the Idaho exposures, Louisiana law governs the survival claim (favoring the Bell plaintiffs) and Idaho law governs punitive damages on the wrongful death claim (favoring the defendants).
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court granted summary judgment to York International and Foster Wheeler Energy and dismissed the claims against them with prejudice, and denied summary judgment to General Electric, Crane, Air & Liquid Systems (Buffalo), Aurora Pump, Atwood & Morrill, CBS, IMO Industries and Warren Pumps.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court denied the plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration, leaving in place its exclusion of their experts' specific causation opinions, and clarified what the experts may say at trial.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court granted in part and denied in part the plaintiffs' Daubert motions: defense experts Dr. Graham and Dr. Taragin may give general causation testimony but not specific causation opinions that the defendants' products did not cause Mr. Bell's mesothelioma.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2017). The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants' partial summary judgment motion: it dismissed Vickie Campos's individual claims and John Bell's nonpecuniary wrongful death damages, but allowed the survival claim, Bell's pecuniary wrongful death claim, and the decedent's pre-death pain and suffering damages to proceed.
• Blouin v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. (2017). The district court granted the Blouin family's motion to remand and sent the case back to Louisiana state court, rejecting Huntington Ingalls (Avondale)'s federal officer removal.
• Leech v. 3M Co. (2017). The court denied plaintiff Margaret Leech's motion to remand and her request for attorneys' fees and costs, holding that Honeywell's removal before any defendant was served was proper.
• Leech v. 3M Company (2017). The court denied plaintiff Margaret Leech's motion to remand and her request for attorneys' fees, holding Honeywell's removal before any defendant was served was proper, so Honeywell and the other defendants prevailed.
• Legendre v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. (2017). The federal district court granted the Legendre brothers' motion to remand their wrongful death suit against Huntington Ingalls (Avondale) to Louisiana state court, rejecting Avondale's federal officer removal.
• Mayeaux v. Taylor-Seidenbach, Inc. (2017). The federal district court granted George Mayeaux's motion to remand and sent the case back to the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, rejecting Avondale/Huntington Ingalls and OneBeacon's federal officer removal.
• Murphy v. Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. (2017). The court denied Rohm and Haas's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction (allowing 60 days of jurisdictional discovery) and Honeywell's Rule 12(b)(6) motion, and ordered plaintiffs to file a more detailed Fourth Amended Complaint.
• Savoie v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Co. (2017). The court granted Owens-Illinois's re-urged exception of res judicata, holding the 1996 release barred the Savoie family's mesothelioma, wrongful death and survival claims against Owens-Illinois.
• Savoie v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Co. (2017). On remand from the Fifth Circuit, the court denied the plaintiffs' (Savoie family) motion to remand, finding Avondale (Huntington Ingalls) and the other defendants made a colorable government contractor defense, so federal officer removal stands.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2017). The court denied Sheppard's motions to exclude settlement and collateral-source evidence, for in limine relief on undeposed experts, for judicial admission on asbestosis, and to exclude the Dr. Smith consultation note, and denied as moot his motion to strike a witness and the defendants' motion for partial summary judgment on asbestosis.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2017). The court granted the defendants' motion and excluded plaintiff Sheppard's treating physicians from giving expert opinion testimony, because he did not make the required Rule 26(a)(2)(C) disclosures; the physicians may offer only lay testimony.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2017). The court granted Liberty Mutual Insurance Company's motion for summary judgment, dismissing plaintiff Sheppard's claims against it in its individual capacity because it owed him no duty.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2017). The court denied Jesse Frank Sheppard's second motion to remand to Louisiana state court and struck his amendments deleting the Caminada allegations, so Mosaic and the other defendants kept the case in federal court.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2017). The court granted Mosaic Global Holdings' motion to dismiss Sheppard's amended fraud claim with prejudice for failure to plead fraud with particularity, and denied Mosaic's motion to strike as moot.
• Smith v. Georgia-Pacific, LLC (2017). The court granted plaintiff Ronald Smith's motion to remand to Orleans Parish Civil District Court, finding removing defendant Honeywell had not shown that Louisiana defendant Taylor-Seidenbach was improperly joined; Honeywell lost on removal.
• Templet v. Avondale Industries, Inc. (2017). The court granted Robert Templet's motion to remand and sent the case back to Orleans Parish civil court, rejecting Avondale's federal officer removal because it showed no causal nexus to the negligence claims.
• Zuniga v. Masse Contracting, Inc. (2017). The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss in part, dismissing with prejudice all claims, including the physical-injury and asbestos-exposure claims, except the plaintiffs' race discrimination claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and dismissed Craig Masse from the case.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2016). The court denied the defendants' motion to strike John Croix from the plaintiffs' witness list, allowed defendants to depose him, and allowed them to seek leave to supplement their expert reports.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2016). The court granted in part and denied in part the pump and valve defendants' motion to exclude studies and videos from plaintiffs' expert Dr. James Millette: most of his study testimony was allowed, but he may not call a study representative of Mr. Bell's likely exposure without a threshold showing, and the challenge to his videos was denied as premature.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2016). The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants' motions in limine: it excluded the plaintiffs' experts' specific causation opinions as unreliable but allowed them to testify on Mr. Bell's mesothelioma and general causation, and refused to strike Dr. Kradin or disqualify Dr. Kraus.
• Bell v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (2016). The court denied without prejudice the ten defendants' summary judgment motions, set out its own maritime-law standard for manufacturer liability for asbestos it did not add to its product, and ordered the defendants to re-file briefs under that standard.
• Bourke v. Exxon Mobil Corporation (2016). The federal district court granted Julius Bourke's motion to remand his asbestos suit to Louisiana state court. It found Eagle was improperly joined and dismissed it, but held Exxon had not shown that Taylor-Seidenbach was improperly joined, so complete diversity was lacking. It denied Bourke's request for attorneys' fees and costs.
• Boyd v. Boeing Company (2016). The court denied Lockheed Martin's and General Dynamics' motions to reconsider the order allowing plaintiffs to add them as defendants after the amendment deadline, and denied their motion to strike them from the amended complaint.
• Bozeman v. Wyeth Holdings Corporation (2016). The court granted Bozeman's motion to remand to Orleans Parish state court, finding that Cyanamid (Wyeth Holdings) failed to prove that the non-diverse defendant Taylor-Seidenbach was improperly joined.
• Loupe v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Company (2016). The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to remand to state court because Avondale's (Huntington Ingalls') federal officer removal was untimely, and denied the plaintiffs' motions for costs, fees and sanctions.
• Murphy v. Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. (2016). The court denied plaintiff Carolyn Murphy's motion to remand, finding the non-diverse Louisiana defendants improperly joined and no waiver of removal by Rohm and Haas, so the case stayed in federal court.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2016). The court denied plaintiff Jesse Frank Sheppard's motion to remand, holding that federal jurisdiction under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was proper, so defendants including Mosaic kept the case in federal court.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2016). The court granted Mosaic Global Holdings' motion to dismiss Sheppard's fraud claim against it under Rule 9(b), without prejudice and with leave to amend within twenty-one days.
• Sheppard v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (2016). The district court denied Sheppard's appeal and let stand the magistrate judge's order refusing him leave to amend his complaint to drop the Caminada facility allegations, finding the amendment futile and made in bad faith.
• Williams v. Rust Engineering & Construction Co. (2016). The court granted Fiat Chrysler N.V.'s (successor to Fiat S.p.A.) unopposed motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, dismissing the claims against it without prejudice; the Williams plaintiffs lost as to Fiat.
• Boyd v. Boeing Co. (2015). The district court denied the plaintiffs' motion to remand (and their alternative request to sever and remand the other claims), so Boeing and United Technologies kept the case in federal court under the federal officer removal statute.
• Comardelle v. Pennsylvania General Ins. Co. (2015). The district court granted Amchem's (Bayer CropScience's) motion and barred plaintiffs' expert Dr. Hammar from giving "every exposure" specific-causation testimony that Comardelle's mesothelioma was caused by Benjamin Foster 81-27 or any other particular exposure.
• Comardelle v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Company (2015). The court granted Amchem's (Bayer CropScience) motion and excluded plaintiffs' expert Dr. Hammar's "every exposure" specific-causation testimony, including as to Benjamin Foster 81-27, while allowing his diagnosis and general-causation opinions.
• Hayden v. 3M Company (2015). The court granted the Haydens' motion to remand and sent the case back to Orleans Parish state court, rejecting removal by Carrier Corporation and Wyeth Holdings (ACC).
• Landry v. Columbia Casualty Company (2015). The court granted Huntington Ingalls' motion for partial summary judgment and dismissed with prejudice the plaintiffs' (Landry's wife and children) claims for bystander mental anguish damages under Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.6.
• Laurent v. New Orleans City (2015). The court granted summary judgment to GE, CBS and Foster Wheeler because the plaintiff, Scott Laurent, did not produce evidence that his father was exposed to asbestos from their products; the defendants' motions for leave to reply were denied as moot.
• Laurent v. New Orleans City (2015). The court granted the City of New Orleans' motion to dismiss the plaintiff's wrongful death claim because the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy, as the plaintiff conceded.