Cruise Ship Law

RICHARD T. ARNOLD, Plaintiff, v. LUEDTKE ENGINEERING, CO.,Defendant.

File No. 1:04-CV-69
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN, SOUTHERN DIVISION
357 F. Supp. 2d 1019; 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3107
February 24, 2005, Decided

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff employee filed suit against defendant employer, seeking damages for negligence and vessel unseaworthiness pursuant to the Jones Act (Jones Act or Act), 46 U.S.C.S. app. § 688. The employer filed a motion for summary judgment on the ground that the employee was not a " seaman " under the Act.

OVERVIEW: The employer was a maritime construction company. During his 23 years of employment, the employee worked in various capacities, including as a runner, deckhand, tugboat pilot, and project foreman. At the time of the events in question, the employee was assigned as project foreman to a seawall construction project. The employee was injured during the wedge plate phase of the project. The court held that the employer was entitled to summary judgment on the employee's Jones Act claim because the employee's job assignment at the time of his injury--attaching wedge plates to a seawall--was a new, land-based assignment that did not involve any service to a vessel; thus, the employee did not have a substantial connection to a vessel as required for " seaman " status under the Act. The court found: (1) the employee's prior work history with the employer was not relevant to the seaman inquiry; (2) the employee's service as a tug boat pilot during the wedge plate phase of the project did not satisfy the substantial connection requirement; and (3) the employee's membership in a seafarers union and receipt of maintenance and cure pursuant to a union contract did not establish his seaman status.

OUTCOME: The court granted the employer's motion for summary judgment.