Comeaux v. T.L. James & Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. 79-2127,79-2127
• Citation: 702 F.2d 1023
• Parties: Lester P. COMEAUX, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. T.L. JAMES & COMPANY, INC. and Highlands Insurance Company, Defendants-Appellees. *
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1023

702 F.2d 1023

1984 A.M.C. 2805

Lester P. COMEAUX, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. T.L. JAMES & COMPANY, INC. and Highlands Insurance Company,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 79-2127.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fifth Circuit ^*.

April 1, 1983.

Brumfield & Brumfield, H. Alva Brumfield, III, Sylvia Roberts, William P. Brumfield Baton Rouge, La., for plaintiff-appellant.

Francis Emmett, Randolph Waits, New Orleans, La., for defendants-appellees.

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

Before BROWN and POLITZ, Circuit Judges ^**.

PER CURIAM:

Recognizing the difficulties the Court's opinion might create in the trial of cases involving joinder of Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims, the Court sua sponte stayed issuance of the mandate in order to consider these problems further. Having fully reviewed the prior opinion, see Comeaux v. James, 666 F.2d 294 (5th Cir.1982), the Court supplements it by adding the following:

The "producing cause" FELA standard, used for Jones Act negligence, facilitates proof by the employee, incorporating any cause regardless of immediacy. Plaintiff's burden of proving such cause is "featherweight," Davis v. Hill Engineering, Inc., 549 F.2d 314, 331 (5th Cir.1977), and all that is required is a showing of "slight negligence," Allen v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 623 F.2d 355, 361 (5th Cir.1980). In keeping with this less demanding standard of proof of causation, the test for sufficiency of evidence in a Jones Act case also requires less evidence to support a finding and directed verdicts and j.n.o.v. motions are granted "only when there is a complete absence of probative facts" to support a verdict. Lavender v. Kurn, 327 U.S. 645, 652-53, 66 S.Ct. 740, 743, 90 L.Ed.2d 916, 922 (1946) (construing standard for FELA cases, applicable to Jones Act cases, Ferguson v. Moore-McCormick Lines, Inc., 352 U.S. 521, 523, 77 S.Ct. 457, 458, 1 L.Ed.2d 511, 513 (1957)); Kendrick v. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co., 669 F.2d 341, 343 n. 1 (5th Cir.1982); Comeaux v. T.L. James & Co., 666 F.2d at 298 n. 3; Allen v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 623 F.2d 355, 3359-60 (5th Cir.1980).

Similarly, we have applied the same standards of proof, causation, and review to the issue of the plaintiff's 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); McBride v. Loffland Brothers Co., 422 F.2d 363, 365 (5th Cir.1970) (applying Lavender test to sufficiency of evidence of contributory negligence); Page v. St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co., 349 F.2d 820, 822-24 (5th Cir.1965) (FELA case applying single standard of proximate causation to employer and employee negligence).

The standard required to prove causation as a result of the vessel's unseaworthiness is more demanding than that for recovery under the Jones Act, and requires proof of proximate causation in the traditional sense. Likewise, the proof of plaintiff's negligence is more difficult. So too the test for review of the sufficiency of evidence of proximate cause in an unseaworthiness claim utilizes the Boeing standard, not the FELA/Jones Act "complete absence" test.

While we are aware that certain practical problems may arise from the distinction between a claim of unseaworthiness and a claim of Jones Act negligence when tried together, these difficulties are inherent in the nature of the claims, for, as we have shown, each involves a separate standard of proof, causation, and review. The distinction between the claims is understandable when one considers that the bases for liability differ, as do the origins of the two causes, one being of legislative origin (Jones Act) and the other being of judicial creation (unseaworthiness and the general maritime law). The trial complications are the result of the liberal policy of joinder embodied in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the integration of admiralty claims and practices within civil rules of procedure.

Yet, while we are sympathetic to the difficulties entailed in trying at one time both Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims, we are convinced that the problems...