Dahlen v. Gulf Crews, Inc.
| Decision Date | 04 February 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-31119.,00-31119. |
| Citation | 281 F.3d 487 |
| Parties | Peter J. DAHLEN; et al., Plaintiffs, Peter J. Dahlen, Plaintiff-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, v. GULF CREWS, INC.; Gulf Boat Marine Services, Inc.; Defendants-Cross-Defendants-Appellees, Universal Ogden Services, Defendant-Appellee, Forest Oil Corp., Defendant-Cross-Claimant-Third Party Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Security Insurance Company of Hartford, Third Party Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
J.B. Jones, Jr., Jennifer Ann Jones (argued), Jones Law Firm, Cameron, LA, for Dahlen.
Grady S. Hurley (argued), Suzanne Michele Ray, Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, New Orleans, LA, for Universal Ogden Services.
George H. Robinson, Jr. (argued), Jamie Duayne Rhymes, Liskow & Lewis, Lafayette, LA, for Forest Oil Corp.
Clayton Arthur Larsh Davis (argued), Lundy & Davis, Lake Charles, LA, for Gulf Crews, Inc., Gulf Boat Marine Services, Inc. and Security Ins. Co. of Hartford.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before JONES and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges, and LIMBAUGH,1 District Judge.
On July 6, 1995, Peter Dahlen injured his back aboard an oil platform while unloading groceries from an eight-foot square metal grocery box. The platform is owned and operated by Forest Oil Corporation ("Forest"). Dahlen sued Forest, as well as the grocery supplier, Universal Ogden Services ("Universal"), and the chartered ship owner, Gulf Crews, Inc. and Gulf Marine Services, Inc. (collectively, "Gulf") for negligence. The district court granted Universal's and Gulf's motions for summary judgment on the basis that they owed no duty to Dahlen. At trial, a jury found that Forest was not negligent and Dahlen now appeals. On appeal, Dahlen claims: (1) the jury charge was erroneous as to the legal standard of negligence it set forth; (2) the jury charge was erroneous as to the duty that was owed by Forest as the time charterer; (3) the jury's findings were erroneous; and (4) it was error to grant Universal's motion for summary judgment.
Forest Oil Company is the owner and operator of several platforms producing oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, including, for the purposes of this suit, West Cameron 44, High Island 116 and High Island 820. All three of these artificial islands are located approximately one and a half hours by boat from each other and are on the Outer Continental Shelf adjacent to the State of Louisiana. In July 1995, the plaintiff, Peter Dahlen, was an employee of Island Operating, but was assigned to work for Forest on Forest's production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Dahlen was employed as a barge operator. At the time of his employment, Dahlen had no physical restrictions and was in good health.
Forest purchased groceries for their offshore platforms from Universal Ogden Services. On July 5, 1995, Forest made a grocery order for West Cameron 44, High Island 116 and High Island 820 from Universal. Universal transported the groceries by truck to a dock in Sabine Pass, Louisiana, and loaded them into an eight-foot square metal blue cube or "grocery box." The grocery box was loaded via crane by Grasso Production Management onto the M/V BILLY JAY, a supply boat owned by Gulf and time chartered by Forest, for transport offshore.
On July 6, 1995, Forest operator, Greg Sweet, instructed Dahlen to go by helicopter to the West Cameron 44 platform and perform routine maintenance and take readings. Sweet also told Dahlen that the M/V BILLY JAY would be arriving with groceries and supplies, which Dahlen should unload. When the BILLY JAY arrived, Dahlen offloaded the grocery box using a crane. When Dahlen opened the box, he found that it had been loaded in such a manner that the supplies for West Cameron 44 were in the back of the box. Because the box only had a single door by which to access its contents, in order to unload the supplies for West Cameron 44, Dahlen had to take everything out of the box, set aside the supplies for his platform, and then reload the other platforms' supplies into the box. This whole process took approximately one hour.
Dahlen claims this activity caused him to suffer a back injury and he had to fly back to shore the next day due to the pain he was experiencing. He had extensive conservative treatment, which proved ineffective. Eventually, Dahlen had to undergo a posterior/anterior two-level lumbar fusion surgery, using hardware to stabilize his back. Dahlen claims that he has not worked since the incident, and that he continues to suffer from pain and depression and that his medications cost $509 per month.
On May 2, 1996, Dahlen filed suit for negligence in the 38th Judicial District Court, for the Parish of Cameron, State of Louisiana. Made defendants were: Gulf, Universal, and Forest. Dahlen maintained that it was negligent, on the part of the defendants, to load the groceries in the order that they did. Dahlen asserted that there was a duty to load the groceries according to a "first in, last out" rule so that he would not have had to unload the groceries destined for the other platforms. On May 28, 1996, the defendants timely removed the action to federal court, invoking federal question jurisdiction via the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act ("OCSLA"), 43 U.S.C. § 1331, et seq. All three defendants filed motions for summary judgment. Universal and Gulf were granted their motions on the grounds that they owed no legal duty to Dahlen. Forest was granted its motion for summary judgment as to liability as the platform owner because Dahlen did not premise his claim on platform liability, but rather on Forest's duty as the time charterer of the BILLY JAY. Forest's motion to dismiss the claim against it as time charterer was denied and the claim went to trial. A jury found that Forest was not negligent and Dahlen appealed. Forest also appealed a refusal by the court to grant Forest indemnity under the charter contract between it and Gulf.
The district court's application of the Admiralty Extension Act
Forest contends that the district court erred in its finding that the Admiralty Extension Act applied, making maritime law also applicable. Forest is under the misconception, however, that this error would deprive the district court of jurisdiction. Forest then goes on to state that the district court allowed liability premised on 33 U.S.C. § 905(b) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act ("LHWCA"), which was grounded in admiralty jurisdiction. Forest therefore seems to argue that, had the district court not used the Admiralty Extension Act, the court would lack subject-matter jurisdiction. The plaintiff responds simply by endorsing the district court's application of the Extension Act.
Neither party nor the district court thought about determining whether jurisdiction could be premised in the OCSLA. The West Cameron 44 platform is a fixed production platform, or artificial island, located on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). As such, injuries that occur on the platform are subject to Federal jurisdiction. 43 U.S.C. §§ 1333(a)(1) and 1349(b).2 The district court clearly found that the claim is governed by the OCSLA; the apparent confusion over jurisdiction seems to arise from the court's statement that "when an event occurs on an OCSLA situs, and maritime law is also applicable, then maritime law controls." What the parties fail to notice is that the court used the word "also" in referring to the applicability of maritime law and cited Smith v. Penrod Drilling Corp., 960 F.2d 456, 459 (5th Cir.1992). The district court was premising its decision on Smith, which relied, in part, on Union Texas Petroleum Corp. v. PLT Engineering, Inc., 895 F.2d 1043 (5th Cir.1990), to determine whether to apply state law or federal maritime law to an action pursuant to § 1333(a)(2)(A) of the OCSLA. PLT stated that:
[F]or adjacent state law to apply as surrogate federal law under OCSLA, three conditions are significant. (1) The controversy must arise on a situs covered by OCSLA (i.e. the subsoil, seabed, or artificial structures permanently or temporarily attached thereto). (2) Federal maritime law must not apply of its own force. (3) The state law must not be inconsistent with Federal law.
Id. at 1047. We assume the district court was focusing on the second prong of PLT when it decided that the Admiralty Extension Act was applicable and so maritime law applied of its own force. The decision to apply maritime law, however, has nothing to do with whether or not a federal court has jurisdiction. It clearly does. See § 1349(b).
Satisfied that the district court had subject-matter jurisdiction of this controversy and that the case was properly removed from state court, we turn to the issue raised by Forest of whether it was error to apply the Admiralty Extension Act to the present case. We review the district court's conclusions of law de novo. Dow Chem. Co. v. M/V Roberta Tabor, 815 F.2d 1037, 1042 (5th Cir.1987). The district court found that maritime law controls the instant case by way of 46 App. U.S.C. § 740, The Admiralty Extension Act, which states, in relevant part:
The admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States shall extend to and include all cases of damage or injury, to person or property, caused by a vessel on navigable water, notwithstanding that such damage or injury be done or consummated on land.
In reaching this conclusion, we think the district court erred.
In order to invoke maritime jurisdiction under the Extension Act, a plaintiff injured on shore must allege that the injury was caused by "a defective appurtenance of a ship on navigable waters." Margin v. Sea-Land Services, Inc., 812 F.2d 973, 975 (5th Cir.1987). The district court relied on Supreme Court cases that have held that a defective cargo...
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