Case Remanded, Court Finds Possibility that Executive Officers Owed Duty to Plaintiff

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A federal court has remanded a benzene case that was removed on fraudulent joinder grounds, ruling that the executive officers named in the complaint had only attempted to refute some of the allegations in the complaint. Bryant v. ExxonMobil Corp., et al., No. 10-532 (M.D. La.).

In a July 25 ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana adopted a report and recommendation in which U.S. Magistrate Judge Docia L. Dalby found that the plaintiffs' motion to remand should be granted.

In the one-page order, the federal court said that it had taken …