Laurent v. New Orleans City (E.D. La., May 26, 2015)

Our plain-English summary of Laurent v. New Orleans City (U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, May 26, 2015).

The plaintiff sued the City of New Orleans and others after his father died of mesothelioma in 2013, which was alleged to be related to his work. The City asked the federal court to dismiss the wrongful death claim under Rule 12(b)(6), arguing that the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for a work-related injury. The plaintiff agreed in his response that the Act barred his claim for the wrongful death of his father. The court said the law in effect at the time of death controls a wrongful death claim. When the father died in 2013, that law protected employers from tort suits, including wrongful death suits, unless the plaintiff alleged an intentional tort, which the plaintiff had not done. The court therefore held that the plaintiff had not stated a wrongful death claim and granted the City's motion. The opinion does not describe the father's work, the sites of exposure or the products involved.

We wrote this summary from the court's opinion with the help of AI. It is not the court's wording, and it is not legal advice. The full opinion is below.

The decision

• Court: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
• Decided: May 26, 2015
• Docket: Civil Action No. 14-2022
• Stage: Motion to dismiss
• State: Louisiana

Outcome. 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.

What the court held. The law in effect at the time of death controls a wrongful death claim, and at the time of the 2013 death the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act immunized employers from tort actions, including wrongful death actions, absent an intentional tort.

Issues decided: Wrongful Death and Survival, Employer and Contractor Liability, and Workers' Compensation.

The people and their exposure

• Plaintiff's father (decedent): mesothelioma; died

The defendants

• City of New Orleans (employer)

Other decisions in this case

Other rulings from the same court in the same case, in our library:

• Laurent v. City of New Orleans (October 23, 2014). The court denied Plaintiff Scott Laurent's motion to remand, holding that GE and CBS properly removed the case under the federal officer removal statute.
• Laurent v. New Orleans City (February 25, 2015). The court granted summary judgment for BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen and against plaintiff Scott Laurent, because he produced no evidence his father was exposed to asbestos from their products.
• Laurent v. New Orleans City (September 9, 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.

Decisions this opinion cites

Earlier decisions in our library that the court cited:

• Meredith v. Asbestos Corp., Ltd. (Louisiana Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, 1998). The court granted the supervisory writs, reversed the denial of summary judgment for Todd and its insurers on the wrongful death actions and dismissed them, but affirmed the denial of summary judgment on the Meredith survival action, which was remanded.

The court's opinion

The text below is Google Scholar's copy of the court's opinion, a public record. Numbers in brackets, such as [*921], mark where each page of the printed reporter begins.

LAURENT,

v.

NEW ORLEANS CITY ET AL., SECTION: "J" (5).

Civil Action No. 14-2022.

May 26, 2015.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

ORDER

CARL J. BARBIER, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant City of New Orleans (the City)'s Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss Wrongful Death Claim. (Rec. Doc. 73) The City argues that the Court should dismiss Plaintiff's wrongful death claim because the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act (LWCA) is the exclusive remedy for decedent's alleged workrelated injury. In response, Plaintiff admits that "the [LWCA] bars his claim for the wrongful death of his father." (Rec. Doc. 75) The Court agrees.

The law in effect at the time of death controls a wrongful death claim. See, e.g., Meredith v. Asbestos Corp., Ltd., 97-2593 (La. App. 4 Cir. 2/18/98), 707 So. 2d 1334, 1336-37. It is alleged that decedent died of mesothelioma in 2013. (Rec. Doc. 73-1) At that time, the LWCA immunized employers against tort actions, including wrongful death actions.[1] Meredith, 707 So. 2d at 1336. Plaintiff consequently fails to state a claim for wrongful death in this case. See Frank v. Shell Oil Co., 828 F. Supp. 2d 835, 847, 851 (E.D. La. 2011)(Fallon, J.). Therefore, for the reasons stated in the City's motion and memorandum and summarized above,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion (Rec. Doc. 73) is GRANTED.

[1] Unless the plaintiff alleges the occurrence of an intentional tort, Meredith, 707 So. 2d at 1335, which Plaintiff has not done here.

Sources

• The opinion on Google Scholar
• Louisiana asbestos laws
• Louisiana asbestos exposure sites