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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA 98-CC-0455 JUDY WALLS, JAMES E. WALLS, KATHY W. HOFFPAUIR, BRENDA W. HEBERT AND MICHAEL WALLS VERSUS AMERICAN OPTICAL CORPORATION, ET AL. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON
KIMBALL, J.* We granted certiorari to determine whether La. R.S. 23:1032 as amended in 1976, which extends tort immunity to executive officers, bars a wrongful death action against the executive officers and their liability insurer when the decedent's occupational exposures occurred entirely before the statute was amended, but his death from silicosis did not occur until years after the amendment's effective date. We hold that the amendment to La. R.S. 23:1032 operates prospectively, applying to causes of action arising after its October 1, 1976, effective date. Since plaintiffs' cause of action for negligent wrongful death arose after this effective date, defendant's exception of no cause of action and motion for partial summary judgment should have been sustained. The judgment of the court of appeal is affirmed. I. Mr. George Walls was employed as a sandblaster for Land & Marine and Coastal from 1964 to 1970, where he was exposed to silica dust that is created during sandblasting. Mrs. Walls and her children assert that this occupational exposure to silica dust caused Mr. Walls to contract the occupational lung disease silicosis and die from that disease on March 17, 1995. The plaintiffs, Mr. Walls' survivors, filed this survival and wrongful death suit against the executive officers of Land & Marine and Coastal, their insurers, and certain manufacturers and sellers of safety equipment who are not before us in this appeal. Century Indemnity ("Century"), one of the defendant insurers of the executive officers, filed an exception of no cause of action and an

*

Calogero, C.J., not on panel. See Rule IV, Part 2,

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