Sample Cases

Class Action:

J. KELLY LAMBERT, ET AL (PROPOSED CLASS ACTION) v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE ORLEANS LEVEE DISTRICT, ET AL.

We are attorneys for owners of several vessels in the Orleans and Southshore marinas who have filed a class action in which they initially allege that vessel owners were charged supracompetitive prices and that were forced to use salvors Marine Recovery and Salvage and its agent, Resolve Marine Group, who had exclusive contracts from Board of the Orleans Levee District. The class action is being certified. More information is available at website of our co-counsel in this case, Adam Lambert. Click to read some of the newspaper articles that were written about the facts of the case.

Wrongful Death:

Melvin Rhine was working in a concrete plant when he was pulled into the rotating concrete pipe that he was taping, resulting in his death. The important question in the ensuing case was whether or not the employer, Bayou Pipe Coating, had created a work environment in which an accident was substantially certain to happen. Through dogged discovery and the search for the right experts, Louis Koerner was able to demonstrate that the employer can be sued for intentional tort, which is an exception to the applicability of Workers Compensation.

The defendants attempted to get a new trial on the basis that the plaintiff's expert report was inadmissible. Click here to read the court's decision to deny the Motion for New Trial.

The defendants, having lost their motion for summary judgment and having had reconsideration denied in very strong language, then applied for supervisory writs to the Louisiana Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who denied the writ for no error of law, and then to the Louisiana Supreme Court, who denied the writ with 3 dissents. Click here to see the Court's denial of writ.

Maritime Law/Tort:

Randall Kowalewski is a seaman who was injured aboard a tanker that was caught in Pacific swells on a vessel with a captain and crew who had no experience with the unique conditions in the Pacific. The captain overreacted to the swells they encountered on a voyage from Hawaii to Long Beach which caused the 600 foot double hulled tanker to roll by ballasting the vessel and alter its course toward one closer to a rhomb line to Long Beach. However, the vessel violently rolled one way and then to the other to a point that was near 40 degrees. Many crew members were thrown out of their bunks and hurt. We are currently preparing depositions of the mates on board in preparation for trial.