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A.
Class Actions
In January 2000, a violent hailstorm struck the metropolitan New Orleans area. Travelers had 7,300 property damage claims with an estimated compensatory and “bad faith” exposure of several million dollars.
Class actions were filed against Travelers in two state courts, Orleans Parish and St. Bernard Parish. We removed the Orleans Parish class actions to federal court and obtained a partial summary judgment dismissing the class action claims against Travelers. This judgment was effectively nullified when the federal court remanded the case to state court with a group of improvidently-removed class actions against other insurers.
After remand, several class actions in Orleans Parish were consolidated and class certification hearings held. In 2003, the trial court denied class certification in cases against State Farm and Allstate. Thereafter, we again obtained partial summary judgment dismissing all class action claims against Travelers in Orleans Parish.
The class action filed in St. Bernard Parish was revived by plaintiffs in 2005. In May 2005, we negotiated a consent judgment dismissing all Travelers defendants on the grounds of lack of venue. * * * * * In 1994, a trial court in Orleans Parish certified a class of all children under age 6 years old who lived in the Housing Authority of New Orleans (“HANO”) residential developments that had lead poisoning. There were several thousand children who were potential class members. The estimated value of all claims by plaintiffs against all defendants were in excess of 1 billion dollars.
We represented a management contractor for HANO who operated the housing authority in the early 1990s. There was a “limited fund” of $4 million in potential coverage from Travelers and we negotiated a favorable settlement for our clients in this complex case.
* * * * * Trial of a class action by school children and residents who claimed injury from a school operated on top of a former Superfund and municipal garbage dump.
* * * * * Settlement of several thousand bodily injury and property damage claims at Superfund waste sites as part of “settlement class” actions.
* * * * * The New Orleans Aviation Board and City of New Orleans were sued by over 10,000 individual property owners living adjacent to the New Orleans International Airport. The property owners alleged that noise from jet overflights depreciated the value of their homes, allegedly resulting in over $110 million in damages. The suits were settled by use of an innovative class action for settlement purposes whereby the individual cases were transformed into a special class action and dismissed after the New Orleans Aviation Board agreed to participate in a federal program to buy out the property owners using federal funds, with less than $500,000 paid in settlement by our clients.
B.
Complex Litigation
In 1988, Stanley Palowsky brought a lender liability suit against a bank, the predecessor to Bank One in Monroe, Louisiana, and its CGL insurer, Aetna. This case was tried in 1992 and Palowsky was awarded over $12 million. On appeal, the award was reversed.
In 1997, Palowsky filed a litigation abuse suit against Bank One and Travelers (as successor to Aetna). Prior to trial in 2002, we obtained the dismissal of all claims against Travelers on the grounds of time-bar. The case proceeded to trial against Bank One and a jury awarded Palowsky $44 million.
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In 2001, plaintiff, a 14 year old boy, received electric shock when a pool skimmer he was holding contacted a 12,000 volt uninsulated, low-hanging electric wire owned by the local utility. The boy sustained severe burns, was hospitalized in a burn unit for three months, and lost his arm in the accident.
A few months before trial in our case, a New Orleans jury before the state judge before whom our case was pending awarded a $55 million verdict for the traumatic loss of an arm by an 8 year old girl.
Our client, Invensys, had alleged contractual liability to the local utility that supposedly failed to discover and correct the low-hanging wire. After a three day mediation, Invensys settled with plaintiff and the utility company on favorable terms.
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Plaintiff, Sonya Williamson, was a guest at a Best Western motel in Alexandria, Louisiana, when she allegedly received an electric shock injury that she claimed caused her permanent brain injury. Investigation revealed plaintiff had two prior “permanent brain injury” claims and that she and her family had over 40 prior personal injury claims. Defendants pled fraud. After a 3 ½ month trial, the jury zeroed plaintiffs upon proof of fraud. The verdict was upheld on appeal. C. General Casualty
A farmer was decapitated by an irrigation machine our client manufactured.
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A worker at a golf course claimed his Parkinson’s Disease was caused by exposure to chemicals our client manufactured. After removal from state court, plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her claim when she could not obtain an expert opinion to satisfy a court order.
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We obtained a defense verdict in a toxic tort case in state court in Orleans Parish in which our client, a paint contractor, allegedly exposed a woman to “Kilz” paint product that caused her to be disabled from returning to work for eight years.
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A pipeline inspection company allegedly irradiated an offshore worker who was quartered on a pipelaying barge below an X-ray machine used to inspect welds on offshore pipelines. The case settled for a contribution of less than $2,000.00 from our client prior to the trial against another defendant in which the judge awarded $4 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff who contracted leukemia as result of the X-ray activities.
* * * * * Our client issued a $50,000 auto liability policy to the insured. Plaintiff had an auto accident and back surgery. He sued the insured and brought a direct action against the insurer for the $50,000 policy limits.
The trial court rendered a judgment for over $1,000,000 under the direct action. This was affirmed by the intermediate trial court.
We were retained as appellate counsel. The Louisiana Supreme Court granted writs and reversed the lower courts, reducing the judgment against the insurer to $50,000. D. Maritime Defense verdict in a Section 905(b) negligence claim by a longshoreman who fell onboard an unlit barge at night;
* * * * * Resolution of a Jones Act suit by a man castrated by a broken tow hawser furnished by our client whereby the client paid 20% of the settlement;
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Defense judgment for underwriters in a 905(b) claim by an LHWCA worker who fell 25 feet from a dock onto a client’s barge while trying to board the vessel;
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Defense of a manufacturer of marine hydraulic oil against a $15 million claim for improper design of fluids used in two large ocean-going vessels which were rendered inoperable by problems involving each vessel’s hydraulic system;
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Trial of a $6 million claim for defective design of an oil rig that collapsed while jacked up, killing two workers and rendering the rig a total loss;
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Defense of a client and prosecution of his indemnity and contribution claims against the manufacturer of a generator that leaked and caused the death of three of his friends by carbon monoxide poisoning aboard our client’s yacht; and
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Successful trial of a $2.9 million indemnity action by underwriters for an anchor handling vessel against a negligent survey company for misplacement of anchors on an offshore pipeline.
E. Representative Hurricane Katrina Insurance Disputes
Hotel Monaco – New Orleans Commander’s Palace Restaurant – New Orleans Favrot & Shane – Owner of 7,000 apartments – Metairie, Louisiana Crown Buick – GMC – Metairie, Louisiana Owner of a Winn-Dixie grocery store – New Orleans Homeowner Claims – Louisiana and Mississippi
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