Louisiana Asbestos Case Law

Asbestos decisions from Louisiana's courts and the federal courts there: 582 cases in our library so far. For what the law requires today, see Louisiana asbestos laws; for where exposure happened, see Louisiana asbestos exposure sites.

Federal district courts

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana

• 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.
• Laurent v. New Orleans City (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.
• Meyers v. Chesterton (2015). The court denied Crane Co.'s motion for reconsideration of the order remanding the case to Louisiana state court and denied its alternative motion to stay the remand pending appeal, so the plaintiffs prevailed.
• Meyers v. Chesterton (2015). The court granted the plaintiffs' (Meyers and Palermo's) motion to remand to state court, holding the defendants, including GE, failed to establish a basis for federal officer removal.
• Poche v. Eagle, Inc. (2015). The district court granted the Poches' motion to remand to Louisiana state court because Eagle, a Louisiana defendant stayed in bankruptcy, was not voluntarily dismissed and so destroyed diversity; it denied the Poches' request for $3,000 in attorneys' fees, so Foster Wheeler lost on removal but avoided a fee award.
• Savoie v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Co. (2015). The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to remand to Louisiana state court, rejecting Avondale/Huntington Ingalls's federal officer removal, and denied the plaintiffs' request for sanctions.
• Smith v. Union Carbide Corporation (2015). The court denied plaintiff Miriam Smith's motion in limine to exclude Union Carbide's expert, industrial hygienist William Dyson, so he may testify about Mr. Smith's estimated asbestos dose.
• Vedros v. Grumman (2015). The court denied the plaintiffs' motions to exclude the expert testimony of Danny Joyce and Dennis Paustenbach, so the defendants (Avondale and Amchem) won the motions.
• Vedros v. Grumman (2015). The court denied Continental Insurance Company's motion in limine and ruled that Sally Gros Vedros's earlier deposition testimony could be used at trial against Continental, so the plaintiffs prevailed on the motion.
• Vedros v. Grumman (2015). The court granted Avondale's motion for partial summary judgment, ruling that the plaintiffs had no claim against Avondale under Louisiana Civil Code articles 1821-1823 based on its insurance buy-back agreements.
• Vedros v. Northrop Grumman (2015). The court granted the defendants' motions for partial summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiff children's Lejeune (bystander) mental anguish damages claim against Avondale, Eagle, Eagle's insurers and McCarty.
• Vedros v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. (2015). The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants' motions to exclude Dr. Kraus: he was qualified and could testify on diagnosis and general causation, but could not give specific causation opinions based on the "every exposure above background" theory.
• Vedros v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. (2015). The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants' motions to strike opinions of Plaintiffs' substitute expert Dr. Kraus, striking several opinions and his rebuttal report to Dr. Stockman and keeping the rest.
• Vedros v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. (2015). The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to strike seven opinions of Westinghouse's substitute expert, Dr. Gail Stockman, because they went beyond or contradicted the opinions of the deceased original expert, Dr. Sawyer; the plaintiffs won and Westinghouse lost.
• Vedros v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. (2015). The court denied Amchem's motion to exclude plaintiffs' industrial hygienist expert Frank Parker, so plaintiffs may present his testimony at trial; Amchem lost, and its motion for leave to reply was also denied.
• Wilde v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. (2015). The court granted Mary Jane Wilde's motion to remand to Louisiana state court, rejecting Avondale (Huntington Ingalls)'s federal officer removal because it failed to show the causal nexus to federal direction.
• Zeringue v. Allis-Chambers Corp. (2015). The court granted plaintiff Howard Zeringue's motion to remand and sent the case back to state court, finding that Crane Co. had not shown enough evidence of government discretion to support federal officer removal.
• Comardelle v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Company (2014). The court granted P2S, LLC's motions for summary judgment, dismissing with prejudice the plaintiffs' claims and the Avondale Interests' crossclaims against P2S, and dismissed P2S's alternative motion as moot.
• Comardelle v. Pennsylvania General Insurance Company (2014). The court denied Union Carbide's motion to exclude plaintiffs' pathology expert Dr. Hammar and for summary judgment on causation, so plaintiffs' claims against Union Carbide continued.