Arch v. Treasure Chest Casino, L.L.C.
| Decision Date | 17 February 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. Civ.A. 03-950.,Civ.A. 03-950. |
| Citation | 306 F.Supp.2d 640 |
| Parties | Oliver ARCH v. TREASURE CHEST CASINO, L.L.C. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Timothy John Falcon, Jeremiah A. Sprague, Falcon Law Firm, Marrero, LA, for Plaintiff.
Robert Hugh Murphy, Peter Brooks Sloss, Peter B. Tompkins, James Melvin Jacobs, John Herr Musser, V, Murphy, Rogers & Sloss, New Orleans, LA, for Defendant.
ORDER AND REASONS
Before the Court is a Motion for Summary Judgment (Rec.Doc. 22) filed by defendant Treasure Chest Casino, L.L.C. ("Treasure Chest"). Having reviewed the pleadings, memoranda and relevant law, and having heard oral argument, the Court GRANTS defendant's motion as meritorious.
Plaintiff Oliver Arch was employed as a deckhand upon the M/V TREASURE CHEST riverboat casino owned and operated by defendant Treasure Chest beginning in April 1996. On April 10, 2002, plaintiff was seriously injured on the job while climbing up a maintenance ladder after chipping rust from and painting on the vessel's hull. Plaintiff alleges defendant's negligence and the vessel's unseaworthiness caused the accident.
The M/V TREASURE CHEST is a paddlewheel-driven riverboat casino styled after a 19th century era Louisiana passenger steamboat. It is a 213.5 foot-long fully operational self-propelled vessel. It began operations in Lake Pontchartrain in September of 1994. From that time until March 31, 2001, the M/V TREASURE CHEST was required to and did make daily gaming cruises for ninety minutes out of every three hours, weather permitting. However, in 2001 the Louisiana Legislature abolished the gaming cruise requirement, amending the law to provide that "gaming may only be conducted on a riverboat while it is docked and the licensee shall not conduct cruises or excursion." La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 27:65(B)(1)(c). See also, La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 27:66, & 91 (West Supp.2002). Consequently, since April 1, 2001, the M/V TREASURE CHEST has been moored to a floating dock.
On July 31, 2001, the United States Coast Guard issued a Certificate of Inspection effective through July of 2007 requiring the M/V TREASURE CHEST to remain in "continuously moored operation on Lake Pontchartrain." Nevertheless, the M/V TREASURE CHEST is required to man its pilothouse at all times passengers are aboard and to staff the vessel with a full "navigational crew," including a captain, mate, chief engineer, and oiler, and deckhands. Except for its continuous mooring requirement, the current Coast Guard Certificate is identical to the one issued before the riverboat casino legislation change effective April 1, 2001.
Since the April 1, 2001, amendment to riverboat casino legislation, the M/V TREASURE CHEST has sailed only twice, on 4th and 5th day of June, 2002. Both cruises, which occurred two months after plaintiff's accident, were brief maintenance trips in which the vessel moved roughly 200 feet from her permanently moored location to allow for maintenance dredging. No passengers were aboard during these cruises and no freight was transported.
Defendant Treasure Chest employed plaintiff Oliver Arch upon the M/V TREASURE CHEST from April 1996 until April 2002 as a deckhand. At all times material, plaintiff carried a seaman's ticket, or "Z Card." Prior to the permanent mooring of the M/V TREASURE CHEST in April of 2001, plaintiff's duties as a deckhand included the following: washing and scrubbing the vessel's deck; chipping and painting the vessel's interior and exterior; cleaning vessel windows; mopping rain off vessel deck; performing man overboard drills including manning rescue boat; participating in fire drills; monitoring tides; inspecting mooring lines; casting off mooring lines for sail; and standing watch on bow or stem during sail. Plaintiff states that the only listed duties discontinued upon the vessel's permanent mooring were (1) casting off lines for sailing and (2) standing watch during cruises. Plaintiff's job description included all other listed duties at the time of the accident.
On April 3, 2003, plaintiff Arch filed suit in this Court, alleging admiralty jurisdiction under Article III, Section 2 of the United States Constitution and 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Treasure Chest filed the instant motion for summary judgment on November 18, 2003. The Court heard oral argument on December 10, 2003, and took the motion under submission that day.
Summary judgment should be granted "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). "Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no genuine issue for trial." Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Substantive law determines the materiality of facts, and "[o]nly disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
The moving party "bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of [the record] ... which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the movant meets this burden, the burden shifts to the non-movant "to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Id. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548. "[M]ere allegations or denials" will not defeat a well-supported motion for summary judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e). Rather, the non-movant must come forward with "specific facts" that establish an issue for trial. Id.
When deciding a motion for summary judgment, the Court must avoid a are tasks for the trier-of-fact. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505. To that end, the Court must resolve disputes over material facts in the non-movant's favor. "The party opposing a motion for summary judgment, with evidence competent under Rule 56, is to be believed." Leonard v. Dixie Well Service & Supply, Inc., 828 F.2d 291, 294 (5th Cir.1987).
When state laws come into conflict with the general maritime law, the latter prevails, even in the case that federal maritime standards supercede state workman's compensation statutes. See Green v. Vermilion Corp., 144 F.3d 332, 341 (5th Cir.1998). If the instant matter falls under admiralty jurisdiction, then plaintiff may have a tort claim against Treasure Chest. If, on the other hand, this matter lacks admiralty jurisdiction, plaintiff is limited to a state law worker's compensation claim.
Supreme Court jurisprudence has established a two part test for determining a maritime nexus sufficient to establish admiralty jurisdiction:
(1) First, a court must assess the general features of the type of incident involved to determine whether the incident has a potentially disruptive impact on maritime commerce;
(2) Second, the court must examine the general conduct from which the incident arose to determine whether there is a substantial relationship between the activity giving rise to the incident and traditional maritime activity.
Hertz v. Treasure Chest Casino, 274 F.Supp.2d 795, 805; citing Jerome B. Grubart, Inc. v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 513 U.S. 527, 115 S.Ct. 1043, 130 L.Ed.2d 1024 (1995). This test is designed to operate as a policy-based filter that allows courts flexibility in screening out unusual fact situations that are not maritime in nature, but happen to occur in navigable waters. Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Admiralty and Maritime Law, § 3-5 at 96 (3d ed.2001).
Traditionally, a tort was considered within the admiralty jurisdiction if it occurred on navigable waters. Frank L. Maraist & Thomas C.Galligan, Jr., Personal Injury in Admiralty, § 4-1 at 29 (2000). This erstwhile standard is known as the "locality test." The Supreme Court began its modern focus on the applicability of admiralty's ancient locality rule in Executive Jet Aviation, Inc. v. City of Cleveland, 409 U.S. 249, 93 S.Ct. 493, 34 L.Ed.2d 454 (1972). There, an airplane struck a flock of sea gulls while taking off from a lakefront airport. The aircraft lost control and then settled in Lake Erie just off the end of the runway. No personal injuries resulted, but the aircraft soon sank and became a total loss. In invoking federal admiralty jurisdiction, the owner of the aircraft filed suit for property damage alleging that the crash was caused by the city's negligent failure to keep the runway free from the birds or to give warning of their presence. Since the plane landed in navigable waters, the site of the damage, the plaintiff alleged the applicability of the general maritime law. Addressing admiralty jurisdiction, the Supreme Court amended the locality test as follows:
[T]here has existed over the years a judicial, legislative and scholarly recognition that, in determining whether there is admiralty jurisdiction over a particular tort or class of torts, reliance on the relationship of the wrong to traditional maritime activity is often more sensible and more consonant with the purposes of maritime law than is a purely mechanical application of the locality test. One area in which locality as the exclusive test of admiralty tort jurisdiction has given rise to serious problems in application is that...
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