United States Fifth Circuit

In a suit involving a contractual dispute between attorneys and a company hired as an expert witness, partial summary judgment for defendants and partial verdict for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the Louisiana open accounts statute did not apply to certain of the disputed agreements; 2) the district court properly denied attorney's fees to plaintiff on the contract that was subject to the open account statute, because it did not demand the correct amounts; 3) the district court correctly determined that Louisiana law, not Massachusetts law, applied; 4) there was no abuse of discretion in the court's refusal to allow plaintiff to file an amended complaint; 5) the court correctly dismissed a duplicative claim; 6) the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to order two defendants to appear; 7) denial of judgment as a matter of law was not an abuse of discretion since a reasonable jury had a sufficient evidentiary basis for its ruling; 8) the judgment correctly stated the jury's verdict; and 9) there was no abuse of discretion in the award of sanctions to defendants or the denial of attorney's fees.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/01/2007
• Published 08/02/2007

Judges

• CARL E. STEWART, Circuit Judge:, Before JONES, Chief Judge, and BENAVIDES and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Paul C. Miniclier (argued), David Anthony Binegar, Law Office of Paul C. Miniclier, New Orleans, LA, for Cambridge Toxicology Group, Inc., James M. Garner (argued), Darnell Bludworth, Sher, Garner, Cahill, Richter, Kelin & Hilbert, New Orleans, LA, for Exnicios; Liska, Exnicios & Nungesser; Finney; Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson & Sperando; Jones; Smith, Jones & Fawer, LLP; Reich; Reich & Binstock; Schwartz and Miss. Lit. Group., Val Patrick Exnicios, New Orleans, LA, for Liska, Exnicios & Nungesser., Donna Sgarella Cummings, Cummings, Cummings & Dudenhefer, New Orleans, LA, for Dudenhefer.