David v. Velsicol Chem. Corp.

49 So. 3d 997, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1237, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1417, 2010 WL 4226692
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 27, 2010
Docket09-1237, 09-1239
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 49 So. 3d 997 (David v. Velsicol Chem. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David v. Velsicol Chem. Corp., 49 So. 3d 997, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1237, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1417, 2010 WL 4226692 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

COOKS, Judge.

| ¡Facts and Procedural History

Plaintiffs in these consolidated cases allege Defendants’ product, Cooper’s Cattle Dip, contaminated then* land and drinking water with arsenic and other hazardous chemicals. They allege the contamination of their lands and drinking water occurred prior to 1970 when Cooper’s Cattle Dip was used in dipping vats located on, or adjacent to, all of the Plaintiffs’ properties. These dipping vats were used to dip cattle in an effort to eradicate ticks which were killing cattle across the United States. Plaintiffs further allege the product was also used in other applications in the area of Plaintiffs’ properties for many years, up to 1985. According to Plaintiffs’ allegations, the ground water under their lands, which they have consumed for many years, is contaminated with high levels of arsenic, in some instances eighty times the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) acceptable levels. Plaintiffs allege that the presence of an alarmingly high rate of certain types of cancer among the resi[1001]*1001dents of their area eventually lead to the discovery of the high levels of arsenic contamination in the ground water running through the entire community in which they live. A local Catholic priest, himself a victim of cancer, encouraged Plaintiffs’ community to test the ground water as a possible explanation for the high rate of certain types of cancer among the population of the area in which the Plaintiffs have lived for generations. The alarming results of those tests precipitated the subject lawsuits.

Plaintiffs’ initial Petition For Damages has been amended and supplemented several times, adding additional plaintiffs and defendants, adding or restating the factual allegations and legal theories upon which Plaintiffs’ claims for damages rely, and adding or restating the various legal capacities in which certain of the Plaintiffs 12make their claims.

On October 80, 2008, the trial court entered a judgment holding that the action is not governed by La.R.S. 9:2800.51, the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA), but is governed by pre-LPLA strict liability law. Defendant did not seek review of that ruling. On December 11, 2008, the trial court ordered Plaintiffs to amend them petitions to address issues of standing. Plaintiffs filed supplemental and amended petitions. On February 9, 2009, the trial court rendered a partial summary judgment dismissing Plaintiffs’ claims that allege “defective construction or composition” and “defective design as to product formulation and composition.” These rulings are not at issue.

On July 6, 2009, the trial court rendered a judgment certified as a final judgment under La.Code Civ.P. art. 1915(B). The trial court ruled on nine motions and exceptions filed by Plaintiffs and Defendant. The trial court granted Defendant’s exceptions of no right of action and no cause of action as to twenty-one of the named Plaintiffs in the consolidated cases but denied the exceptions as to three Plaintiffs, namely Charles Broussard, Mary Olive Broussard Chappuis and Flying J. Ranch Lands, Inc. The trial court found the twenty-one dismissed Plaintiffs had no standing to proceed and their claims were prescribed on the basis that: (1) Louisiana’s survival action statute, La.Civ.Code art. 2315.1, applies to Plaintiffs’ property damage claims and therefore such claims are subject to a one year “preemptive” period from the date of death of the person who owned the property at the time of the alleged contamination; (2) no cause of action is created by the provisions of La.R.S. 30:2015.1 and there is therefore no cause of action for ground water remediation; (3) the utility of Defendant’s product, Cooper’s Cattle Dip, outweighed its danger-in-fact and it was therefore not dangerous per se; and (4) there is no evidence that arsenic levels have |3been found in any of the drinking water, no evidence that any of the Plaintiffs have suffered any adverse health problems as a result of high levels of arsenic in the drinking water, and no evidence of damage to the Chicot aquifer. The trial court also denied Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment asserting Cooper’s Cattle Dip was dangerous per se and granted Defendant’s motion for summary judgment asserting the product was not dangerous per se. Plaintiffs filed this de-volutive appeal.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

We review district courts’ rulings on exceptions of no cause of action de novo. Fakier v. State of Louisiana, Bd. of Suprvrs. Univ. of La. Sys., 08-111 (La.App.3 Cir. 5/28/08), 983 So.2d 1024. See also Scheffler v. Adams and Reese, LLP, 06-1774 (La.2/22/07), 950 So.2d 641. Likewise, we review exceptions of no right of [1002]*1002action de novo, Joseph v. Hosp. Serv. Dist. No.2 of the Parish of St. Mary, 05-2364 (La.10/15/06), 939 So.2d 1206, as well as motions for summary judgment, see Champagne v. Ward, 03-3211 (La.1/19/05), 893 So.2d 773.

Plaintiffs in both actions allege they have sustained injury, and continue to sustain injury, to their person and property as a result of alleged ground water contamination caused by Cooper’s Cattle Dip, manufactured by Defendant’s predecessor. Plaintiffs’ allege the contamination predates the 1988 passage of La.R.S. 9:2088.51. Defendant does not dispute this allegation and did not appeal the trial court’s ruling on the application of products liability law prior to 1988. We agree that these consolidated cases must be examined under Louisiana’s strict liability law as it existed prior to the enactment of La.R.S. 9:2088.1 in 1988.

Products Liability

The Louisiana Supreme Court set forth the fundamentals of early Louisiana products liability law in Weber v. Fidelity & Casualty Ins. Co., 259 La. 599, 250 So.2d 754, 755 (La.1971), a case which also involved Cooper’s Cattle Dip (emphasis added):

A manufacturer of a product which involves a risk of injury to the user is liable to any person, whether the purchaser or a third person, who without fault on his part, sustains an injury caused by a defect in the design, composition, or manufacture of the article, if the injury might reasonably have been anticipated.

Plaintiffs allege in their petitions, and have presented evidence at the hearings on the motions for summary judgment, that arsenic-laden cattle dip was used in large vats on or adjacent to all of the Plaintiffs’ lands. Defendant presents no evidence to the contrary. The method used to “dip” the cattle entailed passing the cattle through large vats filled with a solution of Cooper’s Cattle Dip containing high concentrations of arsenic and other poisonous chemicals. The cattle would then be left standing around in closed pens, on the open ground near the vats, dripping poisonous dip directly onto the ground until they dried sufficiently to be released to pasture. Plaintiffs introduced evidence demonstrating there were no instructions from the manufacturer as to how to cleanup these areas where the dip was simply allowed to run-off onto the ground, allegedly contaminating the soil and eventually the water in the area. Defendant did not introduce any evidence nor present any argument asserting that any such warnings or instructions were given to users of this poisonous and hazardous product. Neither did Defendant allege that its predecessor provided warnings or methods to safely dispose of the used cattle dip to avoid contamination of the soil and ground water.

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49 So. 3d 997, 9 La.App. 3 Cir. 1237, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1417, 2010 WL 4226692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-v-velsicol-chem-corp-lactapp-2010.