Campbell v. Seacoast Products, Inc.
| Decision Date | 27 September 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-1646,78-1646 |
| Citation | 581 F.2d 98,1979 A.M.C. 679 |
| Parties | Larry Joseph CAMPBELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SEACOAST PRODUCTS, INC. and/or Seacoast I, Inc., Defendant-Appellee. Summary Calendar. * |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Louis G. Garrot, III, Abbeville, La., for plaintiff-appellant.
Stockwell, Sivert, Vicellio, Clements & Shaddock, Robert W. Clements, Lake Charles, La., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before GOLDBERG, AINSWORTH and HILL, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment rendered on an adverse jury verdict which rejected appellant Larry Joseph Campbell's claim for damages for personal injury under the Jones Act and general maritime law. Campbell alleged that he was injured as the result of the alleged negligence of an employee of appellee Seacoast Products, Inc. (Seacoast) and the alleged unseaworthiness of a Seacoast vessel. In answer to specific interrogatories, the jury found that Seacoast was not negligent and the vessel was not unseaworthy. Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's finding of no negligence and that the trial judge committed reversible error in failing to instruct the jury properly on the issue of unseaworthiness.
Campbell lost two fingers on his left hand when a cable he was holding on board the vessel was drawn into a pulley. The cable was drawn by a winch operated by a Seacoast employee. The winch was raising a purse boat from the fastenings on its mother vessel in order to allow Campbell to release the boat and lower it into the water.
The crux of Campbell's negligence claim was that the purse boat was drawn up too high and too fast, causing the boat to tip and appellant, who was standing in the boat, to lose his balance and therefore to grasp the cable. On the issue of unseaworthiness appellant desired explicit instructions to the jury that the Seacoast vessel upon which the accident occurred was unseaworthy because of the unsafe manner in which the winch was operated and because of the inexperience and incompetence of the winch operator. 1
The appropriate standard for testing the sufficiency of the evidence in a Jones Act case is whether there is a reasonable evidentiary basis for the jury's verdict. 2 Applying that standard here, we hold that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude that appellant failed to bear his burden of proving that defendant was negligent. Testimony elicited by appellant to the effect that the manner of raising the purse boat caused Campbell to lose his balance was apparently discredited by the jury because that testimony contradicted prior statements of the same witnesses. The only major unimpeached testimony was the fact that the purse boat was drawn up higher than usual, to a height where it was possible for the accident to occur. By itself, that fact will not support a finding of negligence as a matter of law in the face of the jury verdict below.
The unseaworthiness contention pressed here by appellant is in reality nothing more than a restatement of his negligence claim under a different heading. See generally Gilmore & Black, The Law of Admiralty 383 (2d ed. 1975). The allegation of a single, isolated incident of operational negligence gives rise to a cause of action based on negligence but not to one based on unseaworthiness. Usner v. Luckenbach Overseas Corp., 400 U.S. 494, 91 S.Ct. 514, 27 L.Ed.2d 562 (1971); Robinson v. Showa Kaiun K. K., 5 Cir., 1971, 451 F.2d 688. The only evidence offered by Campbell of any manifestation of the winch operator's incompetence or inexperience related to the operation of the winch in the very instance in which he was injured. The...
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Springborn v. American Commercial Barge Lines, Inc.
...or strict.* Indeed, I find it difficult to reconcile the majority's view with this Court's statement in Campbell v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 581 F.2d 98, 99 n. 2 (5th Cir.1978), evaluating a claim that the evidence was insufficient to support a jury finding that the Jones Act employer was n......
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...v. Atlantic Shipping Inc., 562 F.2d 215, 221-22, 1977 A.M.C. 2475, 2484-86 (3d Cir. 1977). But see Campbell v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 581 F.2d 98, 99, 1979 A.M.C. 679, 681 (5th Cir. 1978).13 Because we hold Seacoast vicariously liable, we do not decide Allen's contention that Seacoast's t......
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Hammersley v. Branigar Organization, Inc.
...isolated incident gives rise to a cause of action based on negligence but not to one based on unseaworthiness." Campbell v. Seacoast Prods., 581 F.2d 98, 99 (5th Cir.1978) (citation omitted). The standard for exoneration is different from that for limitation. "An owner will be exonerated fr......
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Alverez v. J. Ray McDermott & Co., Inc.
...of proof, causation, and review of a plaintiff's negligence to that of contributory negligence. See Campbell v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 581 F.2d 98, 99 n.2 (5th Cir. 1978) (applying Lavender standard of review to Jones Act case whether jury verdict favors plaintiff or defendant) 6; McBride......