Recent Development by Heather Rickenbrode
A group of St. James Parish residents filed a class action lawsuit against Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (Chevron) in Louisiana state court after an industrial accident at a local Chevron plant. The petition defined the putative class as “all persons or entities located within five miles of the plant who may have suffered damages as a result of the incident.” The class members claimed that their individual damages would not exceed $74,999 and requested an award of the “costs for the prosecution of this class action.”
Chevron removed the case to the Eastern District of Louisiana, positing that an award of attorneys' fees, allowable to and requested by the plaintiffs under article 595(A) of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, was attributable to class representatives in determining that the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000. The class representatives responded with a motion to remand, claiming that article 595(A) is appropriately interpreted to attribute attorneys' fees to class representatives only when a second Louisiana statute requires a defendant to pay attorneys' fees in addition to damages. The court certified the question of the provision's proper interpretation for interlocutory appeal pursuant to section 1292(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that article 595(A) both authorizes and attributes an award of attorneys' fees to named plaintiffs in a Louisiana class action lawsuit asserting a cause of action that lacks separate attorneys' fees provisions. Grant v. Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., 309 F.3d 864, 876-77 (5th Cir. 2002).
About the Author
Heather Rickenbrode.
Citation
77 Tul. L. Rev. 1453 (2003)