La. High Court Affirms Prescriptive Limitation in NORM Survival Action

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that the one-year time limit for bringing a survival action in a case alleging exposure to Naturally Occurring Radiation Materials (NORM) is a period of liberative prescription rather than one of peremption.

In a May 7 decision affirming an appellate decision that found no ambiguity in a 1986 amendment to a Louisiana statute governing survival claims, the state high court held both legislative intent and policy considerations weigh in favor of applying the statute’s one-year limitation prescriptively.

The decision comes in a case brought by Patricia Watkins, whose father died 25 …