The fourth circuit court of appeals, which covers Louisiana, recently rejected a motion to reduce damages awarded to the survivors of a man killed by a collapsing wall. The court chose to uphold the lower court’s decision, moving forward with the nearly $1 million award to the children of the man killed in the accident.
The defendants had motioned to dismiss or reduce the award because of a number of technicalities within the original trial. According to their appeal, the lower court made a number of errors in the original trial, such as the way in which it applied a duty/risk analysis, or complying with the plaintiff’s motion to strike the jury. The defendants also took issue with the manner in which the court distributed fault in the accident.
