La. Supreme Court Finds Prior Release Bars New Mesothelioma Survival Claims

NEW ORLEANS –– The Louisiana Supreme Court has found that a prior release in an asbestos case bars a more recent action, finding that while it was “tragic” that the decedent developed mesothelioma decades after signing the settlement agreement, it is “not grounds to have it set aside.”

In the Jan. 29 opinion, the state high court found that the intent of the parties in signing the agreement “was not to prospectively exclude or limit Avondale’s liability for the injury … but rather to compensate [the decedent] for both past and future damages stemming from that past injury.”

Gistarve Joseph …