Denise Ussin v. Old Republic Insurance Company, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana grants summary judgment to ACE American Insurance Company, DG Louisiana, LLC, and James Watkins in Denise Ussin’s negligence action. The court holds that Ussin’s trip-and-fall injuries, occurring after she saw a cable fall several houses away, were not within the scope of the duty to drive carefully under Louisiana’s ease-of-association test for legal causation. The court also rejects Ussin’s objection that the motion was an improper successive summary judgment motion and dismisses her claims with prejudice.

Holdings

1. The DG Defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Ussin's trip-and-fall, occurring five houses away after she saw a cable falling, was not easily associated with Watkins's alleged breach of the duty to drive carefully and therefore was outside the scope of protection of that duty.
2. The second summary judgment motion was not procedurally barred because neither the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure nor Fifth Circuit precedent prohibits a timely successive motion brought under a distinct legal theory.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the DG Defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Ussin could not establish that their alleged breach of the duty to drive with due care was the legal cause of her trip-and-fall injuries.
2. Whether the DG Defendants' second summary judgment motion was procedurally barred as an improper successive motion.

Disposition

dismissed