Court Awards Summary Judgment to Employer, Says Claims are Precluded

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A Louisiana federal court has awarded summary judgment to a benzene plaintiff's employer, finding that the defendant was immune to the claims under workers' compensation law. Shepherd v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al., No. 06-509 (M.D. La.).

In the March 11 opinion, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana said that the plaintiff is limited in his recovery against his employer because there is no evidence that the defendant intentionally desired the result of any alleged exposure.

The claims were brought by Kenneth Shepherd, who claimed that he was exposed to benzene …