Bertrand v. International Mooring & Marine, Inc.
| Decision Date | 19 June 1981 |
| Docket Number | 810051 and 810079.,800570,Civ. A. No. 800569 |
| Citation | 517 F. Supp. 342 |
| Parties | Deborah M. BERTRAND, et al. v. INTERNATIONAL MOORING & MARINE, INC. Lisa A. BERTRAND, et al. v. INTERNATIONAL MOORING & MARINE, INC. Marilyn Emery SMITH, et al. v. INTERNATIONAL MOORING & MARINE, INC. Shmuel MEZAN v. INTERNATIONAL MOORING & MARINE, INC. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana |
Hunt, Godwin, Painter & Roddy, Lake Charles, La., for plaintiffs in 800569 and 800570.
David Painter, Lake Charles, La., for plaintiffs in 800569.
John S. Hood, Lake Charles, La., for plaintiffs in 800570.
Allen, Gooch & Bourgeois, Raymond Morgan Allen, Lafayette, La., for International Mooring & Marine, Inc. & Fidelity & Cas. Co.
Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, Robert M. Contois, New Orleans, La., for Arkwright Boston Mfg. Mut. Ins. Co.
Voorhies & Labbe, W. Gerald Gaudet, Lafayette, La., for American Gen. Ins. Co.
Beard, Blue, Schmitt, Mathes, Koch & Williams, W. G. Tabb, III, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs in 810051.
Conery & Breaux, Terry G. Breaux, Franklin, La., for plaintiff in 810079.
RULING ON MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
These consolidated cases arose out of a one-vehicle collision involving a Ford van operated by Robert Clark on April 14, 1979, on Louisiana Highway 82, in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, resulting in injuries to passenger, Shmuel Mezan, and the deaths of three other passengers, Emile Bertrand, III, Paul Bertrand and William Emery. Three additional crew members were passengers in the vehicle. However, no claims have been presented to this Court by them or on their behalf. All of the occupants of the vehicle were employees of International Mooring and Marine, Inc. (IMM) and except for Paul Bertrand, were members of an anchoring and mooring crew which had just completed a one-week job (April 7, 1979, to April 14, 1979) on the Aquamarine 503 (503), a special-purpose vessel that Tenneco Oil Company (Tenneco) had provided in order for IMM to relocate the drilling barge, Marlin 7, from off the coast of Louisiana, to a point near Galveston, Texas. Paul Bertrand, a rigger, on call at the IMM office in New Iberia, was dispatched to Galveston, to bring the crew back to New Iberia, Louisiana, in the company van at the completion of the job. On the return trip from Galveston, Robert Clark, the company officer in charge, replaced Paul Bertrand as driver.
All plaintiffs moved for summary judgment on the grounds that Shmuel Mezan, Emile Bertrand, III, Paul Bertrand and William Emery were seamen and members of the crew of the 503, and other vessels in a fleet owned, chartered, and/or managed or controlled by defendant, IMM. Defendants, American General Insurance Company and Arkwright Boston Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company, have moved for summary judgment on the ground that Mezan, the two Bertrands and Emery, as a matter of law, were neither seamen nor members of the crew of the 503, nor any identifiable fleet or group of vessels. For the purpose of this motion, defendants are not raising any substantial difference between the status of those who worked on the 503 and Paul Bertrand, who was not a member of the anchor-handling crew on this job, but was sent by IMM to Galveston, to transport the crew to New Iberia.
On April 14, 1979, the plaintiff, Shmuel Mezan, and decedents, Emile Bertrand, III, and William Emery, as well as the supervisor/driver, Robert J. Clark, were employed as anchor handlers for defendant, IMM.
IMM did not own any of the vessels on which these anchor-handling crew members performed their work.*
The injuries and deaths arise from a one-car collision on Louisiana Highway 82 in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, which occurred while these employees, in the course of their employment, were being transported by their employer, IMM, from Galveston, Texas, to IMM's office in New Iberia, Louisiana, after completing a job offshore.
IMM is an oilfield service corporation with its home office in New Iberia, Louisiana, specializing in the anchoring and mooring of offshore drilling barges and tender vessels.
Specially outfitted vessels are required to perform IMM's functions. This work cannot be completed without vessels equipped for lifting heavy anchors from the ocean bed onto their decks.
These crew members lived and worked aboard this vessel and similar vessels for the duration of their work assignments, which generally ranged from several hours to seven days and the average job lasted four to five days.
Crew members assisted in getting the vessels into ready condition for the particular assignment and performed all of their functions on or from the vessels provided to them.
Prior to this particular job aboard the 503, these crew members had worked on a number of similar vessels provided to IMM by their customers for IMM to use in conducting its anchoring and mooring operations.
On these type jobs, the vessels were generally chartered by the customer but at times, IMM acted as a broker for the customer and did, on occasion, charter vessels directly for their own use and then bill the customer for the cost.
IMM's crew included an operator for the mooring winch on the vessels. The vessels generally provided their own master, cook, deckhands and mechanic — an ordinary ship's complement.
The anchor-handling crew members performed approximately ninety per cent of their work aboard vessels. The other ten per cent of their work was performed ashore in preparing equipment for their off-shore vessel assignments.
The work records do not substantiate patterns of regular and continuous jobs on any one vessel or specific fleet of vessels, although these crews were regularly and continuously assigned to vessel-related activity and further, their expertise in anchor handling and mooring rendered them integral and indispensable to their employer's off-shore operations.
The 503 was not owned by IMM and had been provided by Tenneco for use by the anchoring and mooring crew. The job which had been conducted on and from the 503 had been an ordinary mooring job, wherein the crew members had loaded themselves, their equipment and their personal belongings onto the vessel to remain for the duration of this particular job assignment.
Immediately prior to the accident, this crew had completed a seven-day relocation job for Tenneco. Tenneco had chartered the 503 for IMM's crew to use in relocating the Marlin 7 from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The 503 came with an ordinary crew and was supplemented by the seven-member IMM anchoring and mooring crew: Robert J. Clark, supervisor; Emile Bertrand, III, operator; Shmuel Mezan, rigger; and William Emery, rigger and three other members.
Paul A. Bertrand was ordinarily a rigger on this crew; however, on this particular occasion, he had remained at the New Iberia office of IMM on standby. One of the duties of standby riggers is to drive personnel to and from job sites. Therefore, when the crew arrived at Galveston, Texas, via helicopter from the 503, Paul Bertrand was dispatched from New Iberia, to transport the crew back to the New Iberia office.
The work summaries compiled from individual time sheets and work records and submitted by counsel as attachments to their Motions for Summary Judgment are apparently incomplete as to William Emery and Paul Bertrand. However, extensive chronological reviews have been offered on behalf of Emile Bertrand, III and Shmuel Mezan. Therefore, since the excerpts submitted on behalf of Paul Bertrand and William Emery indicate that their work patterns would be very similar to that of the other crew members and since it is clear that their work is also maritime in nature, this Court will assume that more complete documentation on these two individuals would reveal that they, too, performed above ninety per cent of their work on vessels as did Mezan and Emile Bertrand, and furthermore, that the average duration of each vessel-related job which they performed would be substantially equivalent to those of the other crew members.1
Time sheet summaries indicate that during an eight-month period, Shmuel Mezan was employed by IMM from September 15, 1978, through April 14, 1979, and he accrued some 2,287 hours. Of those hours, 2,109 were performed on vessels and 178 hours were performed on land preparing equipment in IMM's yard to be used at sea. Mezan's record further indicates that his vessel-related work assignments lasted from as little as a few hours to as much as one twelve-day hitch, with an average duration of three to four days. During that time, Mezan was assigned to four different vessels as many as three times; on eight vessels twice, and once on the ten other vessels to which he was assigned during this eight-month period.
The work summary of Emile Bertrand, III, spanning a one-year time period, from April 7, 1978, through the date of this accident, April 4, 1979, reveals a very similar work history. Although an hourly breakdown is not provided for Mr. Bertrand, it appears that all of his work was vessel-related. Perhaps this is because he was the "operator" of the mooring winch aboard the vessels, and apparently, he did not volunteer for the extra hours available ashore, as did Mr. Mezan and the others.
Emile Bertrand's work summary reveals that his vessel assignments ranged from as little as one day to as much as one nineteen-day hitch, with an average duration of some five and one-half days. During this one-year period, Bertrand was assigned to twenty-five different vessels and had been assigned to four vessels twice; all others once. His summary indicates that he had had twelve vessel assignments which lasted five days or longer.
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