Doyle v. Huntress, Inc.

• Decision Date: 13 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. C.A. 01-409L.,C.A. 01-409L.
• Citation: 301 F.Supp.2d 135
• Parties: Timothy DOYLE; Greg Hagaman; Brian Lague; Anthony W. Richards; and Eric Edwards, Plaintiffs, v. HUNTRESS, INC. and Relentless, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

301 F.Supp.2d 135

Timothy DOYLE; Greg Hagaman; Brian Lague; Anthony W. Richards; and Eric Edwards, Plaintiffs, v. HUNTRESS, INC. and Relentless, Inc., Defendants.

No. C.A. 01-409L.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

January 13, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Merlyn O'Keefe, Esq., Packer & O'Keefe, Peace Dale, RI, for Plaintiff.

J. Renn Olenn, Esq., Olenn & Penza, Warwick, RI, for Defendant.

DECISION AND ORDER

LAGUEUX, Senior District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment, filed by both Plaintiffs and Defendants pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Plaintiffs, Timothy Doyle (Doyle), Greg Hagaman (Hagaman), Brian Lague (Lague), Anthony W. Richards (Richards) and Eric Edwards (Edwards), former deck hands on the fishing vessels Persistence and Relentless, bring this suit against the ships' corporate owners, Defendants Huntress, Inc. and Relentless, Inc., alleging that these corporations failed to provide the Plaintiff seamen with written contracts prior to proceeding on several fishing voyages, as required by 46 U.S.C. § 10601 (1988). Plaintiffs claim statutory damages under a companion statute, 46 U.S.C. § 11107 (1983). Defendants oppose Plaintiffs' motion and cross claim for summary judgment, alleging that their lay-share fishing agreements did not violate § 10601; that § 11107 creates no remedy for lay-share fishermen; and that Plaintiffs' claims are barred by waiver and laches. For the reasons articulated herein, the Court concludes that there are no issues of material fact remaining as to the application of §§ 10601 and 11107 to Plaintiffs' claims, and grants partial summary judgment to Plaintiffs on those issues, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(d). However, because the Court recognizes that genuine issues of material fact remain in dispute as to the Defendants' defenses of laches and waiver, the Court denies Defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment.

Facts and Travel

Between the years 1993 and 2000, Defendants employed each of the Plaintiffs at various times as deck hands and crewmen on the vessels Persistence and Relentless, two fishing trawlers with home berths in Davisville, Rhode Island. The Persistence and Relentless are both 125 foot, steel-hulled freezer trawlers, weighing in excess of 20 gross tons, and are the only fishing vessels permanently operating out of the port at Davisville.

The Defendant corporations utilized what is commonly referred to as the "lay-share system" in paying seamen working on their boats. On any given fishing trip, the boat owners would employ approximately fourteen crewmen per trawler, and these crewmen would engage in commercial fishing along the New England and Mid Atlantic coastline, occasionally following fish further south. After the voyage was over, the ship owners would take the trip's catch and sell it for a profit, usually to a company called SeaFreeze,¹ who would then hold the fish in a shore-side freezer for up to a year and a half.

Once the fish were sold, Defendants would deduct the trip expenses, and the remaining amount would reflect the net profits received from the fishing voyage. The ship owner would then retain a considerable portion of these profits, typically between 58 to 61 percent, and the remaining proceeds would be divided among the crewmen in the form of "shares." Each crewman who sailed with Defendants would be entitled to a share, or a fraction of a share, of these remaining net proceeds gleaned from the trip's catch. The size of each fisherman's share would be determined by the vessel's captain based on the seaman's performance on the voyage, and was not the product of bargaining or an agreement with the fisherman before leaving port. No crewmember would be told before the trip exactly what percentage of the catch he would receive when the voyage was over, as this determination was left to the discretion of the captain, based on his perception of a seaman's work during the trip. Generally, more experienced hands would perform better while out at sea, and thus would receive a larger share, while less experienced seamen would perform less optimally, and as a result receive a smaller share of the proceeds. However, the percentage, or "share" due each fisherman was left entirely to the captain's discretion, and no exact formula existed for determining the amount due each fisherman at the end of a voyage. Once the captain calculated the amount due each fisherman, the Defendant corporations would issue the seaman a check in that amount. No accounting of the trip was provided to the fishermen, and they were not informed what particular percentage or share of the proceeds their individual checks represented.

In some instances, this lay-share arrangement between the crewmen and the ship owners was the product of an oral agreement between the parties, but the agreement itself was never reduced to any form of writing. On other occasions, Defendants would have the seamen sign a form agreement prior to embarkation provided by their insurance company. This document, entitled "FISHING AGREEMENT (As required under the terms of the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act of 1988, 46 United States Code Sec. 10601)" included the following language describing the crew's compensation arrangement:

2. PAYMENT: The crewmember shall receive a share of the crew's net proceeds from the trip. The crew's net proceeds are defined as a percent of the net sales received by the owner for the trip's catch, less trip expenses and any other expense mutually agreed upon by the owner and crewmember. The crew is to be responsible for his share of vessel expenses catch or no catch, catch lost or catch sold but uncollectible.

Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, Appendices 5(a) and 6(a).

A later version of this form used by Defendants employs the same language quoted above, but includes blanks for the amount of the seaman's share and the percentage of the catch to be divvied up amongst the crewmembers. See Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, Appendix 8(a). Defendants purposefully left these blanks empty when the crewmember signed the agreement, as the seaman's share and the percentage of proceeds due the crew were not determined by Defendants until after the trip. These form "Fishing Agreement [s]" included a blank for the ship owner's signature, but they were never signed by either Huntress, Inc., Relentless, Inc., or a designated representative of the applicable corporation. Instead, the company's bookkeeper filled in these blanks with the name and address of Richard Goodwin, the President and primary shareholder of both Huntress, Inc. and Relentless, Inc.² Goodwin does not recall specifically authorizing the bookkeeper to handwrite his name on these agreements.

Finally, on most trips the seamen would be required to sign a roster as they boarded the boat. This roster was also signed by the ship's captain, and it included the following disclaimer above the crewman's signature:

By signing my name to this crew roster, I agree to the terms and conditions of the fishing agreement for the vessel I am boarding.

Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, Appendix 3.

Although this statement makes reference to a "fishing agreement" between the parties, in many cases this one written sentence is the only documentation bearing witness to such an agreement. According to Goodwin, the central purpose of the crew rosters was not to serve as a fishing agreement, but rather to keep track of who went out on the boat. See Goodwin Deposition at 13.

Plaintiffs Richards and Hagaman never signed any written fishing agreements with Defendants, although they did sign crew rosters when boarding on most trips. Richards sailed on the Relentless for numerous trips between July 1995 and November 2000. Hagaman sailed on the Relentless for five trips from March 1996 to July 1996.

Plaintiff Doyle was a crewmember on the Persistence from January 1996 to March 1996 for approximately five trips, and on the Relentless from June 1995 to October 1997 for approximately 25 trips. Doyle never signed a written fishing agreement for his trips on the Relentless, however, he did sign a form agreement, as described above, for his trips on the Persistence. This agreement is missing the year of its execution, however, Doyle believes it was signed January 18, 1996. Plaintiff Edwards sailed on the Persistence for approximately 49 trips, and on the Relentless for approximately four trips. His affidavit is silent as to the dates of these trips. He signed no written fishing agreement for his trips on the Relentless, but, similar to Doyle, signed a form agreement dated June 19, 1993 for his trips on the Persistence.

Plaintiff Lague sailed on the Persistence for one trip in July 1996, and on the Relentless for several trips from July 1996 through February 1999. Unlike the other fishermen who sailed on the Relentless, Lague did sign a written form fishing agreement, as described above, for his trips on that vessel. This agreement is signed July 15, 1996, and purports to cover only one year of sailing. Lague also signed a form agreement for his trip on the Persistence. This Persistence form agreement contains blanks, as described above, for the terms of Lague's share and the percentage of the proceeds assigned to the crew.

As noted above, Plaintiffs were employed as deck hands on Defendants' vessels for different periods of time between the years 1993 and 2000. In 2000, Plaintiffs' attorney, while reviewing settlement sheets for unrelated litigation, noticed that Defendants were paying their crewmembers differing amounts per trip for the same work, and that no written agreements were executed prior to embarkation documenting the exact terms of the each fisherman's wage or share, as required by 46 U.S.C. § 10601. According to Plaintiffs, this was their first notice that they were each paid different shares of the catch for the same work on board the Pe...