Louisiana Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment to Platform Operator in Case Filed by Drilling Services Contractor’s Injured Worker
Posted on May 6, 2014 in Energy/Environmental | Comments Off on Louisiana Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment to Platform Operator in Case Filed by Drilling Services Contractor’s Injured Worker
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana granted summary judgment to the owner of a fixed tower oil platform that was sued by an injured worker employed by a drilling services contractor. The worker suffered injuries while performing the removal of a piece of equipment in order to conduct wireline operations. When the worker arrived at the equipment needing to be...
Prison Sentence for Coal Mine Owner Underscores Need for Transparency with Safety Investigators
Posted on May 6, 2014 in Construction, Investigations | Comments Off on Prison Sentence for Coal Mine Owner Underscores Need for Transparency with Safety Investigators
On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia sentenced a coal mine owner to three months in prison and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine for lying to an MSHA agent during a June 2009 investigation. The court also fined the coal company $25,000 and placed it on probation for a year. In June 2009, MSHA inspectors determined that someone at the mine illegally...
Ninth Circuit Reemphasizes That Challenges to Expert Credibility and the Strength of a Particular Scientific Method Best Left for Jury
Posted on May 5, 2014 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations | Comments Off on Ninth Circuit Reemphasizes That Challenges to Expert Credibility and the Strength of a Particular Scientific Method Best Left for Jury
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s exclusion of expert testimony in a water contamination case that is instructive for expert challenges in any safety-related case. The City of Pomona, California filed suit against the company that imported sodium nitrate into the United States from 1927 through the 1950s from Chile’s Atacama Desert on the grounds that the fertilizer...
Federal Court Must Sever and Remand Jones Act Claim Without Assessing Claim’s Validity if Case Is Otherwise Removable
Posted on May 2, 2014 in Energy/Environmental, Litigation, Workplace Safety | Comments Off on Federal Court Must Sever and Remand Jones Act Claim Without Assessing Claim’s Validity if Case Is Otherwise Removable
If a case is properly removable to federal court notwithstanding the presence of a Jones Act claim, the Jones Act claim should be severed and remanded to the state court without an independent analysis of the claim’s merit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held yesterday. In 1993, the Fifth Circuit explained in Lackey v. Atlantic Richfield Co. that if a...
Facility Owner’s Demand for Insurance Coverage from Common Carrier To Defend Case Against Carrier’s Injured Employee Allowed To Proceed
Posted on May 1, 2014 in Litigation, Transportation | Comments Off on Facility Owner’s Demand for Insurance Coverage from Common Carrier To Defend Case Against Carrier’s Injured Employee Allowed To Proceed
In an underlying suit, a worker alleged negligence against the owner of a facility to which he was making a delivery when he was injured. In turn, the facility owner sued the worker’s employer, a common carrier, asserting that the carrier had breached its duty to defend and indemnify under a Contract Carriage Agreement. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky...
FEATURED
The Crisis Response & Incident Investigation Team at Eversheds Sutherland has substantial experience in guiding companies through crises, big and small, in providing a coordinated response to help mitigate risk and liability. More>>