Simien & Simien, LLC Obtains Successful Ruling From Louisiana Supreme Court and Legal Precedence For Injured People in the State
The attorneys at Simien & Simien, LLC litigated and prevailed in another significant victory from the Supreme Court for the firm's injured clients which will also help other injured persons across the state. The Louisiana Supreme Court which is the highest court in the state of Louisiana and its rulings are not only final and binding in the specific case in which it was rendered, but that Court's decisions on legal issues also apply to every other case in the state
BATON ROUGE, La., June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The most recent victory dealt with motions for summary judgment, which insurance companies and corporate defendants often file in an attempt to have an injured person's case dismissed before it goes to trial. In Reed v. Restorative Home Health Care, LLC, 2019-01974 (La. 2/26/20), 289 So. 3d 1028, the Supreme Court agreed with the arguments made by Simien & Simien, and held that a trial court cannot unilaterally "close" the evidence on a motion for summary judgment. Instead, the deadlines are set by the Code of Civil Procedure and are based on the date of the hearing on the motion.
The Supreme Court ruled that when a trial court judge resets the hearing on a motion for summary judgment, the deadlines for filing a brief and evidence in opposition to the motion are also reset. This victory by Simien & Simien means that injured people across the state will have a fair opportunity to present their evidence against a defendant's premature request to dismiss the case and deny a person their day in court.
This recent victory in Reed marks the third time in less than a year that the Simien & Simien team won a ruling from the Supreme Court that will benefit injured people across the state of Louisiana. In the second case, Johnson v. State Through Dep't of Transp. & Dev., 2019-00676 (La. 9/6/19), 278 So. 3d 970, the Louisiana Supreme Court left in place a multi-million dollar jury trial verdict in favor of a family who lost two young children in an automobile collision. The children were fishing along the side of a road with their father when the driver of a car came off the road and struck the family.
The State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development appealed the verdict against it to the First Circuit. In that appeal, the Department argued that because the children were fishing and not part of the motoring public the Department owed no duty to them. The First Circuit affirmed the ruling in favor of the family.
When the Department asked the Supreme Court to overturn these verdicts, based on the arguments presented by Simien & Simien, the Supreme Court rejected the claims by the Department and upheld the lower court rulings. It also affirmed the fact that the State can be held responsible for defects in the roadways that it maintains when those defects present a danger to pedestrians and others who use the areas adjacent to the roadways.
The third significant ruling set the law in the state on how long an injured person has to bring a lawsuit against his or her insurance company for bad faith claims handling. Under Louisiana law, insurance companies that operate in this state must treat their insureds fairly and act in good faith in handling their insurance claims. When an insurance company violates its duties by failing to make a timely payment, by misrepresenting facts or policy provisions, or by otherwise acting against the interests of its insured, the insurance company can be held liable for damages, penalties, and in some cases, attorney's fees.
The insurance industry had long argued that lawsuits for these bad faith claims have to be filed within one year of the bad faith act. Because of the complex nature of these cases, a one-year limitation could mean that in some cases, an insured would lose the right to file a suit before he or she even realized the significance of the insurance company's wrongful conduct.
However, the Simien & Simien attorneys fought against the insurance industry on this issue and won a significant victory from the Supreme Court in Smith v. Citadel Ins. Co., 2019-00052 (La. 10/22/19), 285 So. 3d 1062. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of injured people and against the insurance industry, holding that when an insurance company acts in bad faith, the insured person has 10 years to file a lawsuit for those bad faith claims.
Simien & Simien's victory protects the rights of policy holders across the state who are harmed because of their insurance company's wrongful acts by ensuring they will not prematurely lose the right to hold these companies liable for their bad faith conduct.
If you have been injured and are wondering how these rulings might impact your claims, contact the attorneys at Simien & Simien to find out more.
SOURCE Simien & Simien, LLC
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