Summary
The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal granted Exxon Mobil Corporation’s supervisory writ and reversed the district court’s denial of Exxon’s peremptory exception of prescription. The court held that the plaintiffs’ wrongful death claims, filed more than one year after the decedent’s death, were prescribed under Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.2 and were not interrupted or suspended by contra non valentem or the bankruptcy stay applicable to a co-defendant. The court dismissed the wrongful death claims with prejudice.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the respondents' wrongful-death claims were prescribed when filed more than one year after Daigle's death.
- Whether the bankruptcy automatic stay applicable to a co-defendant interrupted or suspended prescription of the respondents' wrongful-death claims against Exxon.
- Whether the doctrine of contra non valentem applied to suspend prescription.
Holdings
- The respondents' wrongful-death claims prescribed one year after Daigle's death, on September 24, 2024, because they were not filed until May 30, 2025.
- The automatic bankruptcy stay applicable to Whittaker did not stay the respondents' claims against Exxon or otherwise prevent the respondents from prosecuting those claims.
- Contra non valentem did not interrupt or suspend prescription because none of its four categories applied.
Key quotations
“We find further support for our position in the federal jurisprudence which holds that a stay in bankruptcy as to one defendant has no effect on claims pending against a co-defendant in the same suit.” (3)
“Even if there were a stay as to all defendants, such stay would not have interrupted or suspended prescription of Respondents’ independent wrongful death claims.” (5)
Factual background
John Wayne Daigle learned that he had mesothelioma on September 8, 2021, and he and his wife filed suit on November 17, 2021. Daigle died from mesothelioma on September 24, 2023. His statutory survivors did not assert their independent wrongful-death claims until May 30, 2025, more than one year after his death. A co-defendant's bankruptcy filing triggered an automatic stay as to that debtor, but the record contained no separate order staying proceedings against Exxon or the other nonbankrupt defendants.
Procedural history
John Wayne Daigle and his wife filed an original damages petition in 2021. After Daigle died in 2023, his statutory survivors filed an amended petition on May 30, 2025 asserting survival and wrongful-death claims. The Civil District Court for Orleans Parish denied Exxon's exception of prescription on December 4, 2025, and the Louisiana Fourth Circuit granted supervisory relief, reversed, sustained the exception, and dismissed the wrongful-death claims with prejudice.
Remand instructions
The court sustained Exxon's peremptory exception of prescription and dismissed the respondents' wrongful-death claims with prejudice.