In yet another twist in the tortured labors of the Hercules jurisprudence regarding removal of general maritime law claims under 28 U.S.C. §1441(a), the Eastern District of Louisiana has generated a new, divergent “head” on the body of prior decisions that have attempted to resolve the developing law on this issue. (more…)
As previously reported (regarding the Naquin decision), the Fifth Circuit recently expanded the scope of Jones Act seaman status to include a shipyard worker who spent 70% of his time working aboard vessels (usually moored to the shipyard’s dock, and only very occasionally while the vessels were being repositioned or on test-runs), and the remaining 30% of his time working in a fabrication shop or on a land-based crane. As the earlier post predicted, Naquin’s wake is already sending waves through the lower courts. (more…)
In the new world of shared regulatory oversight between the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and BSEE on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), a mundane devil-in-the-details – but nonetheless vitally important question – had gone unanswered: would BSEE incident investigation reports be admissible in civil proceedings, unlike USCG incident reports, which are indisputably inadmissible pursuant to express statutory terms (46 U.S.C. § 6308)? While there is no similar statutory prohibition barring admission of any reports, incidents of non-compliance (INCs), or other regulatory documents generated by a BSEE investigation, courts had yet to address the issue. (more…)
The three men in the tub will no longer have recourse to the federal courts’ admiralty jurisdiction, at least not in the Eastern District of Louisiana. In Martin v. Fab-Con, Inc., 2014 WL 1246073 (E.D. La. Mar. 24, 2014) – a slip-and-fall suit by a Jones act seaman for negligence, unseaworthiness, and general maritime law negligence – the court held that the dumb quarter barge UNITY where the accident occurred was not a vessel for purposes of admiralty jurisdiction under 1 U.S.C. §3, resulting in dismissal of all but the Jones Act claims. (more…)
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Marine Safety and Security Council issued the winter issue of its quarterly magazine Proceedings: Journal of Safety and Security at Sea in February, providing insights to the long and short-term outlook regarding the regulatory environment on the United States Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). In particular, the USCG noted the rapid technological advances that have advanced OCS capabilities into deeper and deeper offshore waters, outstripping the scope and content of existing regulations. This issue of the Proceedings journal is an informative read for anyone with operations on the OCS, but a few of the more prominent regulatory issues and/or new regulatory initiatives are highlighted below: (more…)
In a Summary Order dated March 13, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for Second Circuit affirmed a summary judgment of the Southern District of New York, which ruled in favor of a vessel owner based on data of the ship’s Simplified Voyage Data Recorder (“SVDR”) in a lawsuit by the owner of a submarine cable damaged by the ship’s anchor. Optical Communications Group v. MV Ambassador, No. 13-1544 (2nd Cir., March 13, 2014). (more…)
