EMPLOYEE WAS NOT CONTRIBUTORILY NEGLIGENT FOR NOT LETTING GO OF HEAVING LINE WHEN IT STARTED TO PULL HIM BECAUSE HE WAS GIVEN A SPECIFIC ORDER TO NOT LET GO OF THE LINE.
BRIAN FERGUSON, Plaintiff, v. OGLEBAY NORTON MARINE SERVICES COMPANY, LLC, Defendant.
Case No. 04-72743
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN, SOUTHERN DIVISION
2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14881
March 31, 2006, Decided
PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff employee sued defendant employer pursuant to the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.S. app. § 688, to recover damages for injuries he suffered while working on the employer's vessel. Both sides moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of contributory negligence.
OVERVIEW: The employee worked as a deckhand. He was injured while using a heaving line to attach the bow mooring cable to the dock. The employee had the eye of the mooring cable just within reach and grabbed it with his left hand. As he reached for the eye he slipped backwards due to debris on the dock. His right arm, still holding the heaving line, jerked forward and he heard a loud pop in his shoulder. The employee also claimed that he dropped the heaving line but because it was attached to the eye of the cable, it spun and wrapped around his glove and his arm was pulled by the heaving line. The court found that the employee could not be held contributorily negligent for not letting go of the line when it started to pull him because he was given a specific order to not let go of the line. Although the employer established an inference through deposition testimony that there was a way to handle the heaving line so one was not in the bight of the line, the employer had not provided any evidence that it was an available alternative to the employee.
OUTCOME: The employee's motion for partial summary judgment was granted. The employer's motion for partial summary judgment was denied.
