Galloway Johnson Tompkins Burr & Smith secured another victory through early dispositive motion practice by Lafayette, Louisiana attorney Myles H. Sonnier, who delivered a positive outcome for Galloway’s client, a commercial liability insurer, in an automobile accident case.
In this case, the lawsuit arose out of an October 2023 automobile accident in south Louisiana. The plaintiff filed suit in October of 2024 against the defendant driver’s commercial liability insurer for personal injury damages under the auspices of Louisiana’s Direct-Action Statute, La. R.S. 22:1269.
Galloway’s Louisiana lawyers proactively counseled their clients on the changes to the Louisiana direct action statute, ensuring their result-driven representation was up-to-date with legislative changes that could impact their business and legal objectives. This case marks one of the first results in Galloway’s case management that was based on the implementation of the amended statute.
The Galloway team employed key defensive strategies and knowledge on Louisiana law involving Louisiana’s recent changes to its Direct-Action Statute and the doctrine of retroactivity to obtain dismissal of the insurer as a party from the case. The amended statute, Act 275, was signed by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry on May 23, 2024, with an effective date of August 1, 2024. Under the amendments, a plaintiff generally no longer has the right to bring an action directly against a third-party’s liability insurer unless certain circumstances are met. This change marks a clear shift in public policy from the previous law, which allowed a plaintiff to normally join a third-party’s liability insurer in a lawsuit.
Though the accident occurred before the amendments to the Direct-Action Statute came into effect, the Louisiana Supreme Court previously declared that the Direct-Action Statute does not create an independent cause of action against an insurer, it merely grants a procedural right of action against the insurer where a plaintiff has a substantive cause of action against an insured. Combining multiple bodies of Louisiana case law together, Myles argued that Louisiana law is clear that a plaintiff has no substantive vested right to bring a claim against a third-party liability insurer and, as such, the elimination of the right under the recent amendments to the Direct-Action Statute are retroactively applied to automobile accidents occurring before the amendments became effective.
Myles and the Galloway team in Lafayette applied their expertise, experience, and skill to partner with their insurance law clients in securing this positive result in Louisiana.