The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana — in Ragusa v. Louisiana Insurance Guarantee Association (October 8) — weighed in whether the state’s LIGA statutes violated the Louisiana Supreme Court rule that a newly created statute of limitations must provide a “reasonable time for those affected” to assert their “vested rights.”
More specifically, the court addressed what is a “vested right” in a wrongful death action.
The plaintiffs’ decedent was diagnosed with mesothelioma from asbestos exposure in June 2021. Shortly after, in July 2021, he filed a claim against various defendants. One of the defendants’ insurers was declared insolvent shortly before the plaintiff’s decedent was diagnosed, and pursuant to statute, LIGA stepped in as an insurer.
Pursuant to the LIGA statute, the court must set a date by which claims were filed. The court in the liquidation matter set a final date for filing claims as December 31, 2021.
The decedent died in June 2024, and approximately one week later, his survivors filed a wrongful death claim on their own behaves against the defendants. While acknowledging that any survival action was timely brought because it extended back to the July 2021 filing, LIGA sought to have the wrongful death claim dismissed, alleging that the plaintiffs’ claim was barred by the final claim date of December 31, 2021, in the liquidation action.
The plaintiffs argued that the LIGA bar did not apply because LIGA knew of the decedent’s direct claim and was on notice that he had a terminal illness, so it knew to expect a wrongful death claim before the final bar date. The court rejected the argument, finding that survival actions and wrongful death actions are separate, and distinct, causes of action “entirely independent of one another.” Finding the cause of action arose “upon the victim’s death,” the court found the claim was made after the bar date.
With regard to whether the LIGA statute violated the Louisiana rule that the legislature may change a statute of limitations but may not interfere with a “vested right,” the court rejected the argument, stating that “plaintiffs rights against LIGA vested at the time the [underlying insurer] was declared insolvent,” and all provisions of the LIGA law were applicable to plaintiff as of that date, including the bar date. However, plaintiffs did not have a “vested right” regarding a wrongful death action at the bar date. Therefore, since there was no “vested right,” there was no impermissible shortening of a statute of limitation, and the wrongful death claim was dismissed.
Read the full decision here.
