Professional Negligence Law Reporter

A Louisiana appellate court held that summary judgment was proper in a suit alleging negligence by a drug test collection facility.

Brady Bass, an onshore laborer, presented to Total Occupational Medicine for employment-related urine and hair sample drug testing. Although the urine test was negative, Bass’s hair sample test was positive for marijuana use. He maintained the result was a false positive, but it impacted his ability to maintain his employment.

Bass sued Total Occupational Medicine, and others, alleging that the employee who collected his hair sample did so in an unsterile and disorganized area, resulting in his sample being contaminated or mislabeled. The trial court granted summary judgment for the defendant.

Affirming, the appellate court noted that for the defendant to have breached a duty, it must have owed a duty and acted unreasonably, and the breach of the duty must have been the cause and fact of the plaintiff’s injuries. Here, the court found, the plaintiff provided the court with no evidence that the hair sample collector’s conduct likely led to contamination of the sample, turning a negative sample into a false positive for marijuana. Citing case law, the court held that proof of negligence is not a substitute for causation.

Consequently, the court concluded that because the plaintiff provided no evidence to support his speculative allegation, the trial court’s grant of summary judgment was proper.

Citation: Bass v. DISA Global Solutions, Inc., 2024 WL 3517677 (La. Ct. App. July 24, 2024).