Expert’s Opinion Calculating Benzene Exposure Tossed As Unreliable
Posted on May 19, 2015
Last Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana excluded the plaintiff’s proposed expert in an alleged benzene exposure case on the grounds that his methodologies used for calculating benzene exposure were unreliable. The plaintiff was the surviving spouse of an individual who had worked as a gas station attendant from 1958 to 1971 and had died from leukemia in 2013. To establish exposure to benzene, plaintiff relied on an industrial hygienist to provide an estimate of the worker’s cumulative benzene exposure from gasoline while working at one...
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Class Certification Denied In Case Involving Alleged Exposure To Refinery Leaks
Posted on May 18, 2015
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana denied a motion for class certification for all individuals living within a certain geographic area of a Louisiana refinery from June 2012 to the present. The plaintiffs attempted to certify the class alleging that the refinery’s failure to meet regulatory standards resulted in more than 145 leaks and specific incidents involving a naptha leak in June 2012, a hydrochloric acid release in November 2012, and a sulfur dioxide leak in May 2012, all of which lead to injuries of proposed class members living near the...
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Coverage For Worker’s Assault On Coworker Excluded From Commercial Liability Policy Given Facts
Posted on May 16, 2015
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Alaska had to determine whether an incident in which a man who assisted on a concrete-pouring job was assaulted by another worker at the job site fell within a commercial general liability insurance policy’s employee-exclusion clause. The job site’s owner had purchased general commercial liability insurance but did not purchase workers’ compensation coverage. The day of the incident, while being assisted by Worker A, Worker B told the company’s owner that he “was agitated by” Worker A’s presence at the site and that...
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Unprepared 30(b)(6) Witness For Mining Company Leads To New Deposition But Not Costs
Posted on May 14, 2015
In response to a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition notice, a mining company designated one witness to testify on 10 topics, including the training and instruction of the company’s employees, citations or violations issued to the company by MSHA, engineering studies for the particular mine in question, and the operation of the particular mine. After the deposition, the plaintiff brought a motion to compel the mining company to provide a new “witness who is prepared adequately to answer the questions based on the [designated] subject areas.” After reviewing the deposition, a...
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Florida Court Overturns Verdict Because Railroad Had No Duty To Provide AEDs Or Train In CPR
Posted on May 10, 2015
Last week, a Florida appellate court set aside a jury’s verdict finding in favor of the estate of a railroad worker who died after suffering cardiac arrest. The court determined that the estate failed to establish that the railroad had a duty to take preventative measures to guard against an employee suffering from cardiac arrest and failed to establish that the railroad’s failure to procure prompt medical assistance contributed in any way to the employee’s death. Moreover, the court concluded that although the railroad had a duty, through its employees, to render basic...
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Seventh Circuit Upholds Permit-Required Confined Space OSHA Violations
Posted on May 9, 2015
At an Illinois manufacturing plant, a worker fell into a large bin used for storing sand and became trapped. At first buried up to his neck, some of his co-workers were able to remove the sand above his waist but not get him out of the pit or remove any additional sand. The plant manager arrived on the scene about 10-15 minutes later and determined that no emergency existed and left the scene. The would-be rescuers were unable to get the worker out of the trapped sand. After about an hour and a half, the plant manager called 911. It eventually took the fire department several additional...
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Split Eighth Circuit Finds Economic Loss Doctrine Precludes Tort Recovery For “Other Property” Damage
Posted on May 8, 2015
The Eighth Circuit weighed in yesterday on whether redress was available in tort where there was injury not only to a defective product but also to other property in a state that applied the economic loss doctrine. The underlying incident involved a fire in a North Dakota arena caused by an allegedly defective amplifier, which caused considerable property damage to the arena and to personal property. The arena’s owners filed suit against the manufacturer of the amplifier alleging tort claims of negligence, strict liability, and failure to warn, but the U.S. District Court for the...
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