# Howard v. Union Carbide Corp.

> Supreme Court of Louisiana · October 19, 2010 · 50 So. 3d 1251

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9783512

## Case

- **Full name:** Donna HOWARD, Individually and on Behalf of Her Two Minor Children, Chad Howard and Kendra Howard, Clarence Johnson, Joyce Johnson, Orville Johnson and Helen Johnson v. UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Louisiana
- **Decided:** October 19, 2010
- **Citations:** 50 So. 3d 1251; 2010 La. LEXIS 2253; 2010 WL 4074952
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Victory
- **Judges:** Johnson, Knoll, Victory
- **Cited by:** 47 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9783512

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that trial court’s awards of $1,500 to $3,500 to plaintiffs exposed to a chemical leak were a clear abuse of discretion given that the "damages proven, such as eye, nose, and throat irritations, are not unlike the symptoms suffered by persons afflicted with common seas…

## Opinion text

VICTORY, J.,
concurring.
|,I agree with the majority’s reduction of the amount of damages awarded by the trial court. However, I disagree with the trial court’s method of awarding damages globally based on the location of each plaintiff to the release site. Damages should have been based upon testimony as to an individual’s actual damages, not on *1258 expert testimony that it was “reasonable” to assume someone closer to the source would suffer more damage than someone farther away. However, because defendant states in brief that it “does not dispute the trial court’s methodology for fixing the claimants’ damages based on their proximity to the Carbide plant,” I concur in the majority opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9783512. Public record. Not legal advice.