In a significant win for the #MeToo movement, the U.S. Senate passed a bill on Thursday, February 10, 2021, which ensures that employees who are sexually harassed or assaulted in the workplace can pursue their claims in court. The bill invalidates pre-dispute agreements that require individuals to arbitrate claims related to sexual harassment or sexual
Within the first six weeks of 2022, both state and federal governments have taken steps toward offshore wind energy development off the coast of Louisiana.
On February 1, the Climate Initiatives Task Force submitted the Louisiana Climate Action Plan to Governor Edwards. The Plan offers strategies and actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in
In Mary v. QEP Energy Company, the U.S. Fifth Circuit held that a landowner is not entitled to a pipeline company’s profits as a consequence of a portion of a pipeline being located partially outside of a servitude. The Fifth Circuit concluded that a landowner can only recover the additional profits earned by defendant
In an opinion that employers across the country have been eagerly anticipating, the United States Supreme Court today issued a per curiam opinion blocking the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) rule that would have required roughly 80 million workers to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination or be tested weekly and wear masks to avoid being
On Friday, January 7, 2022, the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously upheld a COVID-19 vaccine mandate program that the state’s largest private healthcare system implemented for its employees. Hayes, et al. v. University Health Shreveport, 21-01601 (La. 1/7/22). In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the employment-at-will doctrine, and its decision will likely be cited in
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced on December 14, 2021, that employees who contract COVID-19 may be protected from discrimination under federal law. This supplements previously issued guidance addressing when people with “long COVID” may be deemed disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).
The EEOC’s new guidance clarifies that a person
On December 3, 2021, the Department of Justice published a notice in the Federal Register of a settlement between Federal and State Trustees and Kirby Inland Marine, LP (“Kirby”) to resolve natural resource damages from a 2014 oil release. On March 22, 2014, a bulk carrier collided with an oil tank barge owned by Kirby
The Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (the “Act”), which was passed into law on November 15, 2021, included key amendments to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) that pave the way for carbon sequestration in offshore federal waters.
Prior to the Act’s passage, OCSLA (as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005) authorized
On September 30, 2021, the EPA once again signaled a policy change on what provisions a state can include in its Clean Air Act State Implementation Plan (“SIP”) for exemptions and affirmative defenses during periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (“SSM”). This most recent action revokes the EPA guidance issued nearly a year earlier in
The subsequent purchaser doctrine has been litigated extensively in Louisiana legacy cases involving claims for oilfield remediation. The doctrine provides that a current landowner has no standing to bring a lawsuit for property damage that occurred prior to its acquisition absent a valid assignment from the prior landowner of the personal right to sue. However, until now, no appellate court had addressed whether the doctrine barred a claim brought by a closely held or family-owned company who acquired the property in an intra-family transfer. In Louisiana Wetlands, LLC v. Energen Resources Corporation, 2021-0290 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/4/21), 2021 WL 4548529, —So. 3d—, the Louisiana First Circuit answered this question in the affirmative, holding that the subsequent purchaser doctrine applies to property transfers from family members to a company which they also own.
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