Brown & Root, Inc. v. Wade, 987
| Decision Date | 08 May 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 987,987 |
| Citation | 510 S.W.2d 408 |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
| Parties | BROWN & ROOT, INC., Appellant, v. Lovedia WADE et al., Appellees. (14th Dist.) |
William R. Eckhardt III; Vinson, Elkins, Searls, Connally & Smith, Houston, for appellant.
Bowmer, Courtney & Burleson, Temple, David H. Burrow, Helm, Jones & Pletcher, Don Riddle; Kronzer, Abraham & Watkins, Houston, for appellees.
This is a wrongful death case under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688 (1958). Mrs. Lovedia Wade, surviving widow and administratrix of the estate of Donald S. Wade, deceased, along with her minor children Donald, Jr., Joel, Donna, Diana, and Samuel, sued appellant Brown & Root, Inc., for the negligent death of Donald S. Wade aboard a barge owned by appellant. The case was tried without a jury and judgment was entered that appellees recover $125,000. Findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed.
The deceased was employed by appellant as a mechanic aboard the jet barge 'M--288,' a vessel used to lay submarine pipelines. The barge had been tied up for approximately three months at Belle Chase, Louisiana, undergoing winter repairs. The crew was preparing the barge for a Coast Guard inspection the next day, and the deceased at the time of the accident was tightening the wing nuts on a water-tight hatch. This hatch is raised eighteen inches above the deck and is approximately nine feet by seven feet. The door to the hatch weighs roughly 500 pounds and is attached with hinges on one side. A rubber gasket seals the hatch when the sixteen wing nuts are tightened. The bolts are three-quarter inch, and the brass nuts have two wings of four inches each. The hatch cover was warped in a concave manner, approximately one-quarter to one-half inch, such that the corners did not fit snugly.
At the time of the accident, the deceased was tightening a wing nut with a three-quarter inch, aluminum 'cheater pipe' approximately eighteen inches long. No one witnessed the accident. The deceased fell backward, striking his head on the corner of a steel-plate platform supporting an air tugger. Artificial respiration and oxygen equipment were employed, but the deceased never regained consciousness.
The findings of fact of the trial court detail negligence on the part of the appellant in seven respects. Appellant was found to have failed to repair the hatch cover and warpage such that the wing nuts could be tightened by hand, failed to furnish a reasonably safe place to work, failed to furnish a non-slip tool, provided a cheater pipe of aluminum, failed to properly instruct the deceased as to the proper method of tightening, failed to bevel the sharp edge of the air tugger's base, and failed to extend a guard rail by the air tugger.
All of appellant's four points of error present the argument that there is no evidence of probative value to support any of the findings of negligence. Appellant also argues that none of the defects found by the trial court rendered the vessel unseaworthy, on the theory that appellant could not be found negligent if it furnished a seaworthy vessel. However, negligence under the Jones Act is a completely independent ground of recovery from the traditional admiralty action for unseaworthiness, and a finding of employer's negligence is unrelated...
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Maritime Overseas Corp. v. Ellis
...We accordingly followed this line of reasoning as to causation in a Jones Act case in Brown & Root, Inc. v. Wade, 510 S.W.2d 408, 410 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1974, writ ref'd n.r.e.); see also Nobles v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co., 731 S.W.2d 697 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dis......
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Maritime Overseas Corp. v. Ellis
...FELA. See American Dredging Co. v. Miller, 510 U.S. 443, 456, 114 S.Ct. 981, 989-90, 127 L.Ed.2d 285 (1994); see also Brown & Root, Inc. v. Wade, 510 S.W.2d 408, 410 (Tex.Civ.App.--Houston [14 th Dist.] 1974, writ ref'd B. STANDARDS OF REVIEW 1. Jones Act Liability Texas courts have long re......
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Diamond Offshore Management Co. v. Horton
...Co. v. Miller, 510 U.S. 443, 456, 114 S.Ct. 981, 989-90, 127 L.Ed.2d 285 (1994); see also Brown & Root, Inc. v. Wade, 510 S.W.2d 408, 410 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1974, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Jones Act Texas courts have long recognized that in addition to a less stringent burden of p......
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Collins v. Mercury S. S. Co., Inc.
...on proximate cause unduly restricted the jury in the exercise of its functions. See also, Brown & Root, Inc. v. Wade, 510 S.W.2d 408 (Tex.Civ.App. Houston (14th Dist.) 1974, writ ref'd n.r.e.), which cites 98 A.L.R.2d 677, the annotation following the Page Case, We have not been cited a Tex......