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Party: Republican →BA, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical CollegeJD, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical CollegeBA, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical CollegeJD, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
JD
Jefferson D. Hughes 3
Judge, Supreme Court of Louisiana
BA, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
JD, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
BA, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
JD, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
The case involved a negligence claim by Theopholia Thomas against BNSF Railway Company after his garbage truck became stuck at a railroad crossing due to a narrow planking and hole, leading to a collision with an oncoming train that caused injuries. A jury found BNSF negligent and assigned it 85% fault and Thomas 15% fault. The Louisiana Supreme Court granted the writ solely to review the fault allocation, amended the judgment to assign 25% fault to BNSF and 75% to Thomas, and affirmed as amended, based on the evidence regarding the parties' respective conduct and the condition of the crossing.
In State of Louisiana v. Maya Jones, the defendant, charged with first-degree murder and related offenses in a capital case, sought funding from the Office of the State Public Defender for an expert to support a change-of-venue motion but was denied under La. R.S. 15:168(E)(3), which bars courts from ordering such payments. The district court ruled the statute unconstitutional as conflicting with Louisiana Constitution Article 5, § 16(A), which grants district courts exclusive original jurisdiction over felony cases, and the Supreme Court affirmed this holding. The core reasoning was that the statute improperly restricts judicial authority to ensure due process and effective assistance of counsel in felony proceedings, allowing courts to issue mandamus orders for constitutionally required resources even when they involve unfunded mandates. The case was remanded for further proceedings.
This case arose from a September 2021 car accident in Louisiana in which North Carolina resident Kevin Ray Worrell, working as an electrical lineman to restore power after Hurricane Ida under an inter-municipal assistance agreement, collided with the plaintiffs' vehicle. The plaintiffs sued Worrell, his employer the City of Wilson, North Carolina, and related insurers for personal injuries; the defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that Worrell was entitled to immunity under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, La. R.S. 29:735. The federal district court granted the motions, concluding that Worrell qualified as a “representative” of a Louisiana political subdivision and was engaged in emergency recovery activities even while driving back to his lodging. On certified questions from the Fifth Circuit, the Louisiana Supreme Court answered that an out-of-state employee working under such an agreement is not a “representative” of the State of Louisiana or one of its political subdivisions within the meaning of the statute and therefore declined to reach the second certified question concerning commuting travel.
The case involves Christopher Cloudie, charged with first-degree rape and aggravated crime against nature for allegedly performing oral sex on his eight-year-old son. The central issue was whether a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner could testify at trial as an expert and state her diagnosis of "child sexual abuse" based on the child's medical incident history, even though a physical exam showed no findings. The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the trial court's ruling that had permitted the expert testimony. The court held that the expert's methodology was not sufficiently reliable under the applicable evidentiary standards, as it lacked an established scientific basis or error rate for diagnosing sexual abuse without physical evidence and risked improperly bolstering the child's credibility.
The case involved Dwayne Williams seeking compensation under Louisiana's wrongful conviction statute, La. R.S. 15:572.8, for time served after his conviction was vacated based on factual innocence. The State moved to stay the state proceedings under La. C.C.P. art. 532 pending resolution of Williams's parallel federal lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 arising from the same events. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the district court's denial of the stay, reasoning that the statute requires prompt resolution of compensation claims, the federal claim addresses constitutional violations rather than factual innocence, and concerns about double recovery were speculative since no recovery had occurred yet.
This case involved a dispute over whether a plaintiff had timely requested service of process on the defendants under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 1201(C), which requires such a request within ninety days of filing a petition. The plaintiff had requested service and paid the initial fees with the filing but paid additional sheriff's fees billed later, outside the ninety-day window. The district court and appellate court rejected the defendants' exception of insufficiency of service and motion to dismiss, and the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed. The court held that the statutory term "request" means simply to ask for service and does not require simultaneous payment of all fees, which are governed by separate statutes on court costs. The opinion emphasized applying the plain and unambiguous meaning of the word without adding unstated requirements.