La. Court Won’t Award Summary Judgment to Defendant on Issue of Whether Johns-Manville is Joint Tortfeasor

NEW ORLEANS –– A Louisiana federal court has declined to award summary judgment to a school board in an asbestos exposure case on grounds that the Johns-Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust is a joint tortfeasor in the action, concluding that it was not appropriate to make such a determination at this stage of the litigation.

In the May 13 order, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana noted that a jury has not yet weighed in on whether Johns-Manville owed the plaintiff a duty to warn of asbestos-related hazards.

Plaintiff Carey Gomez contended in the lawsuit that …