Boudreaux v. American Workover, Inc.

Citation664 F.2d 463
Decision Date07 December 1981
Docket NumberNo. 80-3287,80-3287
PartiesKeith A. BOUDREAUX, Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN WORKOVER, INC., et al., Defendants, AWI, INC., Defendant-Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AMERICAN INSURANCE CO., Third-Party Defendant-Appellee. . Unit A *
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Wood Brown, III, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.

Dillon & Cambre, Gerard M. Dillon, New Orleans, La., for defendants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before GEE, TATE and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

TATE, Circuit Judge:

We hold that an oilfield specialty worker, injured while performing his employment duties on a vessel (a movable barge) on inland waters, is a "maritime employee" for purposes of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901 et seq. ("LHWCA"). We therefore affirm the district court's summary judgment based upon its holding to that effect.

The procedural context in which this central issue of the appeal arises is set forth in an appendix to this opinion. For purposes of this summary judgment determination, the undisputed facts are as follows:

The plaintiff Boudreaux was employed by Aquatek, Inc., as a member of a wireline crew. He was injured on board the defendant AWI's movable (or "semi-submersible") drilling barge, "AWI Rig 6", in inland waters. The injury occurred while he was performing his duties as a rigger, as a member of Aquatek's wireline crew.

The function of the Aquatek crew was to move the wireline equipment to a barge's new location when it was moved, to hook up the equipment with the use of the rig machinery, and to lower a tool to the bottom of the well for some special purpose, such as testing or correcting some deficiency. The crew and equipment were transported by water to and from the drilling barge on which the wirelining work was to be performed. When a particular wirelining task was completed, the wireline crew and equipment departed for the base or for another assignment.

The record indicates that Boudreaux customarily worked on wireline operations 15-17 days out of each 21-day shift, but it does not indicate whether this time was spent on one or on more jobs, nor does it show the approximate amount of time required for a wireline crew to complete any particular wirelining assignment. The record also indicates that Boudreaux's wireline crew performed a substantial part, if not all, of its work in servicing drilling barges in inland waters.

For present purposes, the parties do not dispute that wirelining operations are an integral or essential part of oil and gas exploration and production activities, whether conducted on land or on water. The appellant AWI suggests, however, that wirelining work is a specialty operation performed by a specialized crew both on land and on water drilling rigs, and that a wireline crew member injured in the course of such work should not be considered a "maritime employee" so as to be within the coverage of the LHWCA just because of the happenstance that his work-injury occurs on a movable barge (vessel) when it is on inland waters. 1

I

The single issue before us is whether Boudreaux, at the time of his injury on navigable inland waters, was engaged in "maritime employment" so as to be within the coverage of the LHWCA. Under the 1972 amendments to that Act, to be entitled to its benefits a disabled employee must (a) be disabled as the result of "an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the Both the status requirements, as defined by section 902(3), based on the nature of the job, and the situs requirements, as defined by section 903(a), based on geography, must be satisfied before the LHWCA can apply. P. C. Pfeiffer Co., Inc. v. Ford, 444 U.S. 69, 73-74, 100 S.Ct. 328, 332-33 (1979); Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. 249, 265, 97 S.Ct. 2348, 2357, 53 L.Ed.2d 320 (1977). Since it is uncontested that Boudreaux was injured over navigable waters, the controversy here concerns only his "status" as a maritime employee.

United States" (defined as also including adjoining areas), 33 U.S.C. § 903(a)-the "situs" test; and (b) be engaged in "maritime employment" at the time of the injury, 33 U.S.C. § 902(3)-the "status" test.

Prior to 1972 a single situs requirement of the LHWCA governed the scope of its coverage. That requirement limited coverage to workers whose "disability or death result(ed) from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any dry dock) ...." LHWCA of 1927, ch. 509, § 3(a), 44 Stat. 1426. "(T)he Supreme Court decided that a worker who in the course of his duty was obliged to go on navigable waters, however briefly or sporadically, and who suffered an injury while in that historically maritime locality was covered by the (pre-1972) LHWCA. Calbeck v. Travelers Ins. Co., 370 U.S. 114, 82 S.Ct. 1196, 8 L.Ed.2d 368 (1962)." St. Julien v. Diamond M. Drilling, 403 F.Supp. 1256, 1258 (E.D.La.1973).

In 1972 Congress amended the LHWCA 2 "by replacing the single situs requirement with a two-part situs and status standard." Pfeiffer, supra, 444 U.S. at 73-74, 100 S.Ct. at 332-33; Caputo, supra, 432 U.S. at 264-65, 97 S.Ct. at 2357. "To be eligible for compensation, a person must be an employee (status) as defined by § 2(3) (33 U.S.C. § 902(3)) who sustains injury on the situs defined by § 3(a) (33 U.S.C. § 903(a))." Pfeiffer, supra, 444 U.S. at 74, 100 S.Ct. at 333. Situs turns on geography; status on the maritime-connected nature of the job. Id., 444 U.S. at 73-83, 100 S.Ct. at 333-37; Caputo, supra, 432 U.S. at 265, 97 S.Ct. at 2358-63. Since it is uncontested that Boudreaux was injured over navigable waters, the controversy here concerns only his "status" as a maritime employee.

After the district court granted summary judgment in this case, another panel of this court rendered a decision in Pippen v. Shell Oil Company and Inland Well Service, Inc., 661 F.2d 378 (5th Cir. 1981). Pippen involved a legal issue virtually identical to that now before this panel. In Pippen, as here, the injured worker was performing wirelining work that was essential to the function of the vessel (drilling barge) upon which he was working-i. e., offshore mineral production. The wireline employee was injured while working on a drilling barge on navigable inland waters. The issue in Pippen, as here, is whether under those circumstances the wireline employee performing temporary specialty work on the drilling barge was engaged in "maritime employment" so as to be covered by the LHWCA.

Significantly to the issue before us, Pippen noted:

Maritime employment is an occupational concept that is dependent upon the nature of the employee's activities. P. C. Pfeiffer Co. v. Ford, (444 U.S. 69) 100 S.Ct. 328, 335, 62 L.Ed.2d 225 (1979). In order to determine whether an employee's work is maritime in nature, this Court has held that "we must look to the purpose of the work, not solely to the particular skills used." Trotti & Thompson v. Crawford, 631 F.2d 1214, 1221 n. 16 661 F.2d at 382-383.

(5th Cir. 1980) (carpenter constructing pier was engaged in maritime employment). The relevant inquiry in determining whether an employee was engaged in maritime employment is whether his activities had a " 'realistically significant relationship to traditional maritime activity.' " Mississippi Coast Marine, Inc. v. Bosarge, 637 F.2d 994, 998 (5th Cir. 1981) (carpentry work on wooden thirty-foot pleasure boat resting on blocks was maritime employment) (quoting Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Gilmore, 528 F.2d 957, 961 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, (429 U.S. 868) 97 S.Ct. 179, 50 L.Ed.2d 148 (1976)). Fusco v. Perini North River Associates, 622 F.2d 1111, 1113 (2d Cir. 1980) maritime employment refers to activities that "bear a significant relationship to navigation or to commerce on navigable waters," (construction of sewage plant not connected to traditional maritime activities), cert. denied 449 U.S. 1131, 101 S.Ct. 953, 67 L.Ed.2d 119 (1981).

The test employed by the Second Circuit on remand 3 in Fusco v. Perini North River Associates, 622 F.2d 1111 (2d Cir. 1980), was whether the employment bears "a significant relationship to navigation or to commerce on navigable waters." Id. at 1113. The production of oil and natural gas from the beds of navigable bodies of water and the ocean bottom has become a maritime activity. This is a major industry with peculiar maritime-related problems. Employment in an industry that provides approximately 40,000 jobs, 4 and untold millions of dollars in revenues and that takes place primarily upon the navigable waters of the United States, bears "a significant relationship to ... commerce on navigable waters."

In Pippen, the court found that the wireline employee's work was, as in the present case, necessary to the completion of the offshore drilling process and it concluded that the work performed "had a realistically significant relationship to maritime commerce," so as to be "maritime employment." Pippen, supra, 661 F.2d at 384.

The ruling in Pippen is dispositive of the present issue. In the case before us, Boudreaux (like Pippen) was injured on navigable waters while performing wirelining employment duties that were an integral or essential contribution to the mineral-production function of the vessel upon which he was working. The work performed thus "has a realistically significant connection to traditional maritime activity", Pippen, supra, 661 F.2d at 385, so as to be "maritime employment" within the coverage of the LHWCA.

II

The legislative history of the 1972 amendments to the LHWCA re-enforces our view that Pippen correctly characterized as "maritime employment," for purposes of the Act, wireline specialty work contributing to the function of a movable drilling barge on inland waters.

The question whether an offshore oil worker injured on a "vessel" is covered by the current LHWCA turns...

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