La. Court Awards Summary Judgment to Avondale Shipyards, Says Asbestos Claims Preempted

NEW ORLEANS –– A Louisiana federal court has awarded summary judgment to Avondale Shipyards in an asbestos exposure suit, concluding that the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act preempted the state law negligence claims.

In the Oct. 14 order, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana also rejected the plaintiff’s position that apply the Act retroactively to claims arising from land-based exposures that occurred prior to 1972 unconstitutionally divested him of a property right in his accrued state law negligence claims, concluding here that Congress had “expressly prescribed that the amended statute applies to latent disease …