Court Rules Exposure Occurred Before Workers' Compensation Act, Remands Lawsuit

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal court has remanded a benzene exposure lawsuit after finding that the 13 months that the plaintiff worked for his employer before a Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act went into effect was sufficient time to establish a valid cause of action against the defendant company. Young, et al., v. Taylor-Seidenbach, et al., No. 04-715 (E.D. La.).

In an order entered June 22, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana rejected the defendants' contention that the plaintiff's employer had been fraudulently joined in the lawsuit and instead ruled that the plaintiffs had sufficiently established harmful …