Doyle v. Huntress, Inc.

• Decision Date: 12 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1242.,04-1242.
• Citation: 419 F.3d 3
• Parties: Timothy DOYLE; Greg Hagaman; Brian Lague; Anthony W. Richards; Eric Edwards, Plaintiffs-Appellees/Cross-Appellants, v. HUNTRESS, INC.; Relentless, Inc., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, Greg Bray; Kyle Goodwin, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

419 F.3d 3

Timothy DOYLE; Greg Hagaman; Brian Lague; Anthony W. Richards; Eric Edwards, Plaintiffs-Appellees/Cross-Appellants, v. HUNTRESS, INC.; Relentless, Inc., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, Greg Bray; Kyle Goodwin, Defendants.

No. 04-1242.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard February 10, 2005.

Decided August 12, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Martin K. DeMagistris, with whom J. Renn Olenn and Olenn & Penza, LLP, were on brief, for appellants.

Merlyn P. O'Keefe, with whom Packer & O'Keefe was on brief, for appellees.

Before TORRUELLA, LYNCH, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

The issue presented in this interlocutory appeal is whether the 1983 codification of the maritime safety laws in Title 46 creates a cause of action for lay share fishermen under the "highest rate of wages" provision of 46 U.S.C. § 11107, and the liability provisions of 46 U.S.C. § 10601. We hold that it does.

I.

This appeal arises out of a compensation dispute between plaintiffs-appellees, Timothy Doyle, Greg Hagaman, Brian Lague, Anthony W. Richards, and Eric Edwards ("the fishermen"), former deckhands on the fishing vessels the PERSISTENCE and RELENTLESS, and the corporate owners of the fishing vessels, defendants-appellants Huntress, Inc. and Relentless, Inc. The fishermen brought suit against the vessel owners in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, alleging that the vessel owners failed to comply with 46 U.S.C. § 10601 (1988), which requires, among other things, that the owners of a fishing vessel make a written fishing agreement with each seaman employed prior to the voyage. Plaintiffs claimed statutory damages under a companion statute, 46 U.S.C. § 11107 (1983). The defendant owners moved for summary judgment, alleging that (1) their lay share fishing agreements did not violate section § 10601, (2) § 11107 does not create a remedy for lay share fishermen, and (3) plaintiffs' claims are barred by waiver and laches. The district court concluded that the vessel owners violated the requirements of § 10601, Doyle v. Huntress, 301 F.Supp.2d 135, 145 (D.R.I.2004), and concluded that "§ 11107 applies to lay-share fishermen, and may be utilized by Plaintiffs as a statutory default wage in place of their void contracts with Defendants." Id. at 148. The district court thus granted summary judgment in favor of the fishermen as to the application of §§ 10601 and 11107 to their claims. However, the district court found that genuine issues of material fact remained in dispute as to the defendants' defenses of laches and waiver, thus necessitating trial. The district court stayed the proceedings below pending resolution of this interlocutory appeal.

Plaintiffs-appellees served as deckhands and crewmen aboard the fishing vessels PERSISTENCE and RELENTLESS at various times from 1993 until 2000. The vessels are 125-foot, steel hulled freezer trawlers, weighing in excess of twenty tons each, and operating out of the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

As is typical in the fishing industry, the vessel owners used the "lay share system" to compensate the fishermen they employed. The owners generally employed a crew of ten to thirteen per trawler for commercial fishing voyages along the New England and mid-Atlantic coastline. Upon completion of a fishing voyage the vessel owners sold the catch and deducted the trip expenses from the profit. The remaining profit was then be divided, with the vessel owner retaining more than half of the profits — usually between 58 and 61 percent — and the remaining proceeds being divided among the crewmen in the form of "lay shares."

The share or fraction of a share each crewman received was determined by the captain of the vessel, based on the fisherman's skills and performance on the voyage. The size of the share was not a product of any written agreement with the fisherman made prior to leaving port, and no fisherman was told before the trip exactly what percentage of the net profit he will receive at the end of the voyage. This determination was left to the discretion of the captain based on the performance of the fisherman during the voyage. After the captain calculated the "share" due each fisherman, the vessel owners issued a check in that amount. More experienced and skilled crewmen are better able to perform highly specialized functions, making them more valuable on a voyage. Thus, fishermen with greater experience received a larger share of the profits than less experienced crewmen.

II.

We begin with the question of appellate jurisdiction. Although both parties agree that jurisdiction exists in this court to review the district court's order granting partial summary judgment, we have an obligation to inquire sua sponte into our jurisdiction over the matter. Florio v. Olson, 129 F.3d 678, 680 (1st Cir.1997).

The underlying action is still pending in the district court and has been stayed until we resolve this question. Thus, the district court's decision and order granting summary judgment to the plaintiffs on their § 11107 claim is not a "final decision" in the sense required by 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (conferring appellate jurisdiction over "final decisions" of the district courts). However, Congress has created statutory exceptions to the final judgment rule, including 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(3), which allow immediate appeal from some interlocutory orders. Section 1292 provides that "(a) [T]he courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction of appeals from: ... (3) Interlocutory decrees of such district courts or the judges thereof determining the rights and liabilities of the parties to admiralty cases in which appeals from final decrees are allowed.". See Martha's Vineyard Scuba Headquarters, Inc. v. Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Steam Vessel, 833 F.2d 1059, 1062-64 (1st Cir.1987). An interlocutory appeal under § 1292(a)(3) applies to any order that conclusively determines the liability of a party, even if the order leaves unresolved an issue which may ultimately preclude recovery by a particular plaintiff. In re S.S. Tropic Breeze, 456 F.2d 137, 139 (1st Cir. 1972). Three prerequisites must be met for this court to have jurisdiction to consider this interlocutory appeal pursuant to § 1292(a)(3): "(1) the underlying case must be an admiralty case `in which appeals from final decrees are allowed;' (2) the appeal must be from an interlocutory order or decree of the district court; and (3) the order or decree must have determined `the rights and liabilities of the parties.'" Wingerter v. Chester Quarry Co., 185 F.3d 657, 663 (7th Cir.1998) (citing Foulk v. Donjon Marine Co., 144 F.3d 252, 255 (3d Cir.1998); Martha's Vineyard Scuba Headquarters, 833 F.2d at 1063).

A. Admiralty Case

The case at hand arises in admiralty and concerns the interpretation of two statutes that regulate the employment of seamen, 46 U.S.C. § 10601 and § 11107. "Whether a case is an admiralty case turns on whether the plaintiff properly designated the action as an admiralty case." Wingerter, 185 F.3d at 664. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(h) governs the designation of admiralty claims:

A pleading or count setting forth a claim for relief within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction that is also within the jurisdiction of the district court on some other ground may contain a statement identifying the claim as an admiralty or maritime claim for the purposes of Rules 14(c), 38(e), 82, and the Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims.... A case that includes an admiralty or maritime claim within this subdivision is an admiralty case within 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(3).

The district court found that it had jurisdiction over the case below pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, Huntress, 301 F.Supp.2d at 140, and also confirmed that "[t]his case concerns a matter of admiralty law," id. at 140; see 28 U.S.C. § 1333. The district court specifically noted that plaintiffs alleged subject matter jurisdiction by virtue of this case arising in admiralty. Id. at 140 n. 3. As the underlying case was properly designated an admiralty case, it is also an admiralty case for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(3). See Fed.R.Civ.P.9(h).

B. Interlocutory Order

The district court's decision and order of January 13, 2004 was plainly interlocutory because it leaves unresolved the defenses of laches and waiver.

C. Rights and Liabilities

Finally, to "ascertain whether, for purposes of § 1292(a)(3), the substantive rights and liabilities of these adversaries were sufficiently determined by the order," Martha's Vineyard, 833 F.2d at 1064, we must identify a decision on the merits of the claims or defenses underlying the dispute which determines substantive rights. Id.

Although the district court's decision and order did not fully resolve the plaintiffs' claims regarding their ultimate damages, it did conclusively determine the substantive grounds of the complaint. The district court determined that defendants (the vessel owners) had violated the requirements of § 10601 in the fishing agreements they entered into with plaintiffs (the fishermen). Huntress, 301 F.Supp.2d at 146. In addition, the court determined that § 11107 applies to lay share fishermen and therefore could "be utilized by Plaintiffs as a statutory default wage in place of their void contracts with Defendants." Id. at 148. Thus, the district court found that plaintiffs were statutorily entitled "to recover `the highest rate of wages at the port from which the seaman was engaged or the amount agreed to be given the seaman at the time of engagement, whichever is higher.'" Id. at 146 (quoting 46 U.S.C. § 11107). Therefore, the district court granted partial summary judgment to plaintiffs as to the application of § 10601 and § 11107. We are satisfied that the district court's ruling meets the substantive "rights and liabilities" prerequisite of § 1292(a)(3). We conclude, therefore, that w...