Practice,
Made Perfect

The firm’s Mississippi office battled a high stakes trucking case for the past six years. Central to the case was a fierce liability dispute. The plaintiffs’ vehicle was sitting in the right hand lane of a rural highway, without working lights and late at night. The dark color of the small sedan mixed with painted over taillights made it virtually impossible to be seen by following traffic. A truck driver was traveling down the same highway and only saw the disabled, unlit vehicle as a collision was imminent. Regrettably, the collision resulted in three fatalities and two injured plaintiffs. While most of the parties resolved their claims, the remaining plaintiff took a hardline stance on liability and trial was scheduled.  The firm successfully excluded one of Plaintiff’s liability experts ahead of trial. This expert intended on testifying in the field of accident reconstruction, human factors, trucking and transportation and regulatory compliance.  Plaintiff appealed the exclusion up to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which refused to overturn the trial judge’s ruling.  The ruling significantly gutted Plaintiff’s liability theories and directly resulted in the ability to resolve the case ahead of trial.

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We secured summary judgment in a premises liability case in Baton Rouge’s 19 Judicial District Court. The plaintiff alleged that she slipped and fell on a wet floor in a gas station, which caused a significant injury to her right knee requiring multiple surgeries. Surveillance footage showed that the plaintiff fell immediately next to a “wet floor” sign. The firm moved for summary judgment on the grounds the wet floor was open and obvious in light of the wet floor sign and the plaintiff failed to exercise reasonable care. Plaintiff argued that summary judgment was premature because she needed to take additional depositions of gas station employees. The Court rejected this argument and granted summary judgment on the basis of Plaintiff’s testimony and video footage of the accident alone.

The firm secured dismissal with prejudice at the outset of a construction contract dispute. A residential homeowner sued our client – a residential and commercial contractor who previously performed construction work on the home for the prior owner. Obtaining and analyzing the Act of Cash Sale, TWPD argued the plaintiff had no right of action against the contractor under the subsequent purchaser doctrine because the language in the Act of Cash Sale did not meet the specificity requirements under Louisiana law. TWPD’s client was dismissed with prejudice before discovery ever began.

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The Firm’s Baton Rouge attorneys secured judgment in favor of an employer in a workers’ compensation matter before OWC District 6. While our client conceded the claimant had enough evidence to prove he broke his arm at work, our client still disputed the extent of his injuries and disability. Both parties also filed competing fraud claims against one another. The defense focused on whether claimant intentionally lied about two intervening motor vehicle accidents, his simultaneous treatment for multiple accidents and the timing of when he first returned to work.

The Court found Claimant proved an initial accident and injury but found he subsequently committed fraud, forfeited his rights to workers’ compensation benefits and he was fined $5,000. The court further found Claimant could not prove causation for any ongoing injury. Our client was only ordered to pay  a single $153 medical bill.

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