Cruise Ship Law

LINDA KAY WELCH, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS TUTRIX FOR DAYLON CHASEBOSWELL AND KYLER WELCH AND AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF BYRON JOSEPH BOSWELLAND LISA PERIERA, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS TUTRIX FOR BRANDON BOSWELL AND AS PERSONALREPRESENTATIVE OF BYRON JOSEPH BOSWELL VERSUS FUGRO GEOSCIENCES, INC., AND ITSINSURER SIGNAL MUTUAL INDEMNITY ASSOCIATION, LTD.; MARSHLAND MARINE OF BAYTOWN,TEXAS, AND ITS INSURER XYZ INSURANCE COMPANY

2000 CA 1231
COURT OF APPEAL OF LOUISIANA, FIRST CIRCUIT
2000 1231 (La.App. 1 Cir, 11/21/01); 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2716
November 21, 2001, Rendered

PRIOR HISTORY: On appeal from the eighteenth judicial district court. (number 25,579), parish of West Baton Rouge, state of louisiana. Honorable Jack T. Marionneaux, judge.

DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED. Costs are assessed against the plaintiffs-appellants.

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Appellant, a deceased longshoreman's minor child, sued appellees, employer and insurer, asserting claims under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.S. § 688, under 28 U.S.C.S. § 1333, and under state law. The Eighteenth Judicial District Court of West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, granted partial summary judgment to the employer and insurer, and dismissed the child's claims for consortium, punitive, and other nonpecuniary damages. The child appealed.

OVERVIEW: The child's father, working on his employer's airboat, died in Louisiana territorial waters after the airboat sank. The child alleged that the employer was negligent, and violated its warranty of seaworthiness to the decedent. In granting partial summary judgment to the employer and its insurer, the trial court held that nonpecuniary damages could not be recovered for the death of a longshoreman injured in territorial waters. The appellate court agreed. It assumed for purposes of the opinion that the parties had stipulated that the decedent had been a longshoreman. 33 U.S.C.S. § 905(b) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act barred any recovery from shipowners for the death of a longshoreman resulting from breach of the duty of seaworthiness. A dependent of a longshoreman injured on the outer continental shelf could not recover loss of consortium damages under the general maritime law. The fact that La. Civ. Code Ann. art. 2315.3 authorized punitive damages was immaterial, as the statute was inapplicable, having been preempted by federal maritime law.

OUTCOME: The judgment was affirmed.