NEW ORLEANS (AP) A pipeline company must pay attorneys who won $30,000 for three fractional owners of land where the company began work before getting legal permission, the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled.
Crain
NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - Louisiana’s highest court reversed a $6 million verdict stemming from the collision of two of the state’s most important industries, oyster fishing and commercial shipping. The court cited unreliable testimony from a plaintiff expert who lacked the proper background to testify that silt from a grounded tugboat decimated oyster production across a large area.
Plaintiff Marty Melerine held about 500 acres of oyster leases in the shallow waters of Christmas Lake near New Orleans in 2016 when the tugboat tried to cut across the oyster grounds for repairs on a malfunctioning engine. The 60-foot craft, with twin propellers nearly four feet in diameter, got stuck on an oyster “reef” and tried to free itself with the thrust of the engine but failed, waiting until high tide floated the boat the following day.
Louisiana Court: ‘Collectibility’ Not a Limiting Factor in Legal Malpractice Damage Amounts
Are a plaintiff’s damages in a legal malpractice case limited to the amount they could have collected in a judgement in the underlying lawsuit that an attorney was found to have mishandled?
The Louisiana Supreme Court said ‘no’ in a case involving a woman’s malpractice suit against her attorney who failed to file in a timely manner his client’s petition for damages following an auto accident in which the client was injured.
In Elaine Ewing vs. Westport Insurance Corporation, Et Al., the court was asked to “determine whether ‘collectibility’ is a relevant consideration in a legal malpractice action,” Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson explained in an opinion issued Nov. 19.
Toy giveaways, tree planting in Algiers and more metro community news nola.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nola.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.