Cruise Ship Law

ALLISON MARIE DUNBAR GUILLORY, Administratrix of the Estate of Patrick Guillory, and as Parent and Next Friend of WINTER LAPATRIA GUILLORY and ARIEL JU'NEA KEON GUILLORY, Plaintiff, v. REASON GUKUTU and CHRISTIAN PERSONNEL, INC. d/b/a CHRISTIAN CONSTRUCTION, INC., Defendants.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND
2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11728
February 13, 2008, Decided

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Defendants, an employee and a staffing company, moved jointly for summary judgment on all claims brought against them by plaintiff administratrix. The administratrix's decedent was killed while working at a shipbuilding company, when the man-lift that the employee had been operating pinned the decedent between the man-lift basket and the controls. The staffing company had sent the employee to work for the shipbuilding company.



OVERVIEW: The employment status of the employee under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) determined the potential liability that he and the staffing company faced. Therefore, the primary issue before the court was whether the employee was a borrowed servant of the shipbuilding company at the time of the accident, because if he was, both he and the staffing company were cloaked from liability by the immunity enjoyed by the shipbuilding company. The court found the Fifth Circuit's nine-part test a useful rubric by which to assess the question of control in the context of borrowed servant status. Denying the motion for summary judgment, the court noted that, although the staffing company may have had continued contact with the employee, the actual work performed at the shipbuilding company was directed, controlled, and overseen by the shipbuilding company alone. Applying the nine factors as a part of a "control" inquiry, the court concluded that the employee was the shipbuilding company's borrowed servant. Because the employee and the decedent were persons in the same employ, compensation benefits were the administratrix's sole available remedy against the employee.



OUTCOME: The court granted summary judgment on all counts