NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge denied a motion by Waste Connections Bayou Inc. and Louisiana Regional Landfill Co. to compel the plaintiff to hand over results of questionnaires completed by residents suing them in an ongoing waste lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan made her ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on April 28.
Judge Morgan pointed out that the plaintiffs already had to produce a first case management order by Dec. 5, which includes documents related to causation.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan
But the defendants allege the plaintiffs failed to produce vital information, specifically answers from a Jefferson Parish landfill data sheet questionnaire. The questionnaire asked if neighbors “noticed any odors from the Jefferson Parish Landfill at [their] home,” according to the lawsuit. If they answered yes, the follow-up question asked whether said odors “affect[ed their] ability to use and/or enjoy [their] home.”
After plaintiffs said the questionnaire was protected by attorney-client privilege, the defendants pointed to several cases that they appeared to hope would serve as a loophole. But Morgan said the cited cases were irrelevant to this suit.
“After considering the intentions of the parties as consistently expressed in their communications with the court, the court finds defendants’ are not persuasive,” Morgan wrote in her order.
“The issue of whether a particular respondent experienced odors from Jefferson Parish Landfill pertains to specific, not general, causation,” Morgan wrote. “Accordingly, the court finds plaintiffs are not required to produce the questionnaire responses, at least not at this time.”
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 18-7889 c/w 18-8071, 18-8218, 18-9312