Blige v. M/V Geechee Girl

• Decision Date: 25 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 400CV145.,No. 400CV319.,400CV145.,400CV319.
• Citation: 180 F.Supp.2d 1349
• Parties: Zachary Lamar BLIGE, Plaintiff, v. M/V GEECHEE GIRL, her tackle, engines, furniture and appurtenances, in rem, and Michael Casey, in personam, Defendants. In the Matter of the Complaint of Michael Casey, owner of the shrimp trawler Geechee Girl, For Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia

180 F.Supp.2d 1349

Zachary Lamar BLIGE, Plaintiff, v. M/V GEECHEE GIRL, her tackle, engines, furniture and appurtenances, in rem, and Michael Casey, in personam, Defendants In the Matter of the Complaint of Michael Casey, owner of the shrimp trawler Geechee Girl, For Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability.

No. 400CV145.

No. 400CV319.

United States District Court, S.D. Georgia, Savannah Division.

July 25, 2001.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas Langston Bass, Jr., Brennan, Harris & Rominger, Savannah, GA, for Plaintiff.

Wilson R. Smith, Smith & Jenkins, PC, Vidalia, GA, Edwin D. Robb, Jr., Todd Michael Baiad, Bouhan, Williams & Levy, LLP, Savannah, GA, for Defendants.

Kirby Clarice Mason, Hunter, Maclean, Exley & Dunn, Savannah, GA, for Interested Party.

ORDER

EDENFIELD, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

In this Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. § 688/Maintenance and Cure¹ case, defendant Mike Casey moves for partial summary judgment, doc. ## 32, 36 exh. A, over plaintiff Zachary Lamar Blige's opposition. Doc. # 37. Casey also moves, unopposed, to strike a portion of the pleadings.² Doc.# 27.

II. BACKGROUND

Blige was working as a striker (deck hand assisting with shrimping) on Casey's shrimp trawler, the Geechee Girl. Doc. # 34 (attachment; Blige dep. at 43). On 9/6/97, he was injured when struck in the face by the cable guide while bringing in a shrimp net. Doc. # 37 at 1; # 30 at 2 ¶ 8; #34 (attachment; Blige dep. at 43).

Blige submits that he was injured because "the tension on the cable caused the cable guide to leave its housing." Doc. # 37 at 1; # 30 at 5. Conversely, Casey contends that Blige was injured as a result of his own negligence. He claims "Blige knew that, when setting out the nets, he should remove/lift the cable guide from the brackets," and that because he failed to do so, "the cable guide released from the brackets and struck him in the left forehead." Doc. # 30 at 7.

Following the injury, Blige received treatment at two hospitals and from three doctors. Doc. # 1 at 2 ¶ 15; # 30 at 2 ¶ 9; # 34 (attachment; Younggreen dep. at 2-6; Count dep. at 4-6); # 36 exhs. A, B.

Blige seeks, inter alia, "maintenance and cure under the Jones Act, payment for permanent injuries, damages as a result of the unseaworthiness of the shrimping vessel, attorneys fees for the defendants' failure to pay maintenance and cure, and punitive damages for defendants' failure to pay maintenance and cure." Doc. # 37 at 2; see also # 30 at 6.

At issue here is whether: (1) punitive damages are available for the failure to pay maintenance and cure; and (2) plaintiff is entitled to cure for medical expenses paid by the State of Georgia Department of Community Health (Medicaid).

III. ANALYSIS

A. Punitive Damages

The first issue here is whether, in light of Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19, 111 S.Ct. 317, 112 L.Ed.2d 275 (1990), the Jones Act precludes punitive damages for failure to pay maintenance and cure available under general maritime law. Casey argues preclusion for maintenance and cure³ claims, citing Hollinger v. Kirby Tankships, Inc., 910 F.Supp. 571 (S.D.Ala.1996). Doc. # 33 at 2-3. The Hollinger court, relying on Miles and Guevara at 1499, held that punitive damages are precluded under general maritime law for maintenance and cure claims.⁴ Hollinger, 910 F.Supp. at 572. It predicted the Eleventh Circuit would follow Guevara when presented with the issue. Id. at 573; see also Wininger v. Hendry Corp., 1999 WL 33218593 at *2 (M.D.Fla.1999) (unpublished) (following Guevara and Hollinger to hold that "punitive damages are unavailable in disputes concerning the payment of maintenance and cure," but failing to acknowledge contrary Eleventh Circuit precedent: Hines v. J.A. LaPorte Inc., 820 F.2d 1187, 1189 (11th Cir.1987) ("both reasonable attorney's fees and punitive damages may be legally awarded in a proper case")).

Conversely, Blige submits that punitive damages are still available for maintenance and cure claims in light of Hines. Doc. # 37 at 3. But the Hines court relied primarily on Fifth Circuit cases since overruled by Guevara. See Hines, 820 F.2d at 1188-89; Guevara, 59 F.3d at 1509 ("Of course, Hines's reliance on [Complaint of] Merry Shipping [Inc., 650 F.2d 622 (5th Cir.1981)] is now analytically problematic because ... Merry Shipping was effectively overruled by the later decision in Miles") (cite omitted); id. at 1500 ("we conclude that [the approval of punitive damages by Holmes v. J. Ray McDermott & Co., 734 F.2d 1110 (5th Cir.1984)] is no longer justifiable in cases of willful nonpayment of maintenance and cure").

The Eleventh Circuit has not addressed the issue since Hines, though it has acknowledged the Hines rule in dicta. See In re Amtrak Sunset Ltd. Train Crash, 121 F.3d 1421 (11th Cir.1997) (punitive damages may be available in "exceptional circumstances such as willful failure to furnish maintenance and cure"); Flores v. Carnival Cruise Lines, 47 F.3d 1120, 1127 (11th Cir.1995) ("Carnival did not [violate] any established legal duty toward Flores, and therefore did not exhibit willful and wanton misconduct, which is the standard Flores must meet to recover punitive damages in admiralty law") (citing Hines, 820 F.2d at 1188); Kasprik v. U.S., 87 F.3d 462, 464 (11th Cir.1996). Would the Eleventh Circuit still reach the same result today?

In abandoning its earlier position (that punitive damages are available for maintenance and cure claims), the Guevara court applied Miles's analytical framework. See Guevara, 59 F.3d at 1506. That framework basically assures that "when a statute resolves a particular issue ... the general maritime law must comply with that resolution." Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corp. v. Garris, 532 U.S. 811, 121 S.Ct. 1927, 1931-32, 150 L.Ed.2d 34 (2001). To this end, the Miles Court

held that loss of society and future earnings may not be recovered in a seaman's wrongful death and survival action, whether brought under the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act ("DOHSA") or general maritime law. Although general maritime law would allow such a recovery, DOHSA and the Jones Act expressly did not allow such damages, and the Court held that uniformity would thus be compromised if judicially created maritime law allowed remedies more expansive than those allowed by federal statutes.

La Voie v. Kualoa Ranch and Activity Club, Inc., 797 F.Supp. 827, 829 (D.Haw. 1992). The Miles court thus reminded that "Congress retains superior authority in `admiralty' matters, and an admiralty court must be vigilant not to overstep the well-considered boundaries imposed by federal legislation. These statutes both direct and delimit our actions." 498 U.S. at 27, 111 S.Ct. 317.

The Guevara court termed this the Miles "uniformity principle." 59 F.3d at 1506. Under this principle, "general maritime law will not expand the available damages when Congress has spoken to the relief it deems appropriate or inappropriate." Id.; see Miles, 498 U.S. at 31, 111 S.Ct. 317 (cite and quotes omitted) ("in an area covered by statute, it would be no more appropriate to prescribe a different measure of damage than to prescribe a different statute of limitations, or a different class of beneficiaries'"). So, if the Jones Act provides a cause of action for maintenance and cure, and limits the availability of punitive damages, then such damages cannot be awarded under general maritime law.

The Guevara court applied the Miles "uniformity principle" when it concluded that, because punitive damages for a maintenance and cure claim are unavailable under the Jones Act, 59 F.3d at 1506, "the same cause of action under the general maritime law for the failure to pay maintenance and cure cannot provide a punitive recovery, even if willfulness is demonstrated." Id. at 1512. Hence, once the factual setting of a case is found to be covered by the Jones Act, punitive damages must be tossed overboard. Id. at 1506 n. 7.

In determining whether the factual setting in Guevara was covered by the Jones Act, that court reasoned:

[T]here are really two "types" of maintenance and cure actions. The tort-like type involves a personal injury; i.e., typically a worsening of the seaman's physical or mental health caused by the failure to provide maintenance or, more likely, cure. The contract-like type need not involve a personal injury (although it may); it need only involve the loss of a monetary outlay. Because the tort-like maintenance and cure action involves a personal injury, however, it overlaps with the personal injury coverage of the Jones Act. Such an action is frequently brought under the Jones Act.... As mentioned, once there is a statutory/general maritime law overlap in the factual circumstances that are covered, the Miles damages uniformity principle is invoked, and punitive damages would be precluded under the general maritime action for maintenance and cure.

Guevara, 59 F.3d at 1511-12 (footnote and cites omitted).⁵

Other courts have employed similar reasoning. See Horsley v. Mobil Oil Corp., 15 F.3d 200, 203 (1st Cir.1994) ("Miles mandates the conclusion that punitive damages are not available in an unseaworthiness action under general maritime law"); Miller v. American President Lines, Ltd., 989 F.2d 1450, 1459 (6th Cir.1993) (punitive damages not available under general maritime law); see also La Voie, 797 F.Supp. at 831 ("The Jones Act does not allow for the recovery of punitive damages. If this court allowed a punitive damage claim under general law, it would be supplanting Congress' judgment under the Jones Act") (cite and quotes omitted); Watters v. Harrah's Illinois Corp., 993 F.Supp. 667, 676 (N.D.Ill.1998) ("Pursuant to the Miles uniformity principle, punitive damages are not recoverable in the tort-like maintenance and cure action because such damages would not be recoverable in an action under the Jones Act"); Nurkiewicz v. Vacation Break U.S.A., Inc., 771 So.2d 1271, 1274 (...