Ferdinandtsen v. Delta Marine Drilling Co.
| Decision Date | 04 May 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 3885,3885 |
| Citation | 235 So.2d 641 |
| Parties | Sammy G. FERDINANDTSEN v. DELTA MARINE DRILLING COMPANY. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Slavich & Eggleston, Chester A. Eggleston, Metairie, for plaintiff-appellee.
Christovich & Kearney, A. R. Christovich, Jr., New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
Before REGAN, SAMUEL and SWIFT, JJ.
On August 26, 1964, the plaintiff, Sammy G. Ferdinandtsen, was seriously injured during the course of his employment with Delta Marine Drilling Company, defendant, aboard the latter's submersible drilling barge. The accident occurred on navigable waters in Plaquemines Parish while the barge was submerged for the purpose of drilling an oil well. At the time, however, the rig was shut down for repairs to the low drum clutch at the end of the drawworks.
Plaintiff, a floor hand or roughneck, was instructed by the defendant's mechanic, who was in charge of the repairs, to help put the low drum clutch housing back on the shaft of the drawworks. The housing was round, with a diameter of between three to four feet and a thickness of from six to eight inches. Its weight was estimated roughly at around 1200 or 1500 pounds.
It was necessary to roll the heavy housing about ten feet to the place where it was to be lifted by an air hoist and positioned on the shaft. Plaintiff said he suggested to the motorman, who was one of his supervisors on the drilling crew, that they might need more men for the job, but he was assured the two of them could handle it. With the motorman on the left and plaintiff on the right the housing was rolled on the metal floor of the drilling barge to the intended position.
The plaintiff testified that after it came to a stop he let go in order to operate the air hoist. The motorman did not remember whether or not the housing had come to a complete stop, but at this point it became unbalanced and fell towards the plaintiff's side. According to the latter, in attempting to get out of the way, he tripped over a piece of pipe that was in a burlap sack on the floor. The housing fell on him, causing injuries principally to his left knee.
Neither the plaintiff nor the motorman were able to say just what caused the housing to become unbalanced. However, plaintiff contends that more than two men were required to perform the job safely, and that if the floor had been clean he could have escaped injury by stepping away from the housing as it fell. Delta Marine's tool pusher and mechanic testified that such housings are customarily rolled by only two persons and that more than two men would get in each other's way. No other person recalled the plaintiff tripping over any particular object as the housing fell. Defendant's witnesses thought the floor was clean, but they readily admitted that pipe connections and other accessories could have been at such location, because this is usually the case when a low drum clutch is disassembled for repairs.
It was also contended that the housing became unbalanced because of away in the metal plates or unevenness of the dick of the drilling barge. Except for admissions by defendant's employees of such remote possibilities, no positive proof was offered in support of this contention.
Arthrotomies were performed on plaintiff's left knee by orthopedic surgeons on two occasions, the first by Dr. Arthur G. Kleinschmidt on September 14, 1964, and the second by Dr. Nick J. Accardo in May, 1966. Nothing of great significance was noted on the first operation. However, on the second the physician found tears in the medial meniscus and the lateral meniscus and both were removed. The doctor also found marked involvement of chondromalacia of the medial articular facet of the patella and this area was debrided.
Dr. Accardo discharged plaintiff on October 21, 1966, with a twenty-five per cent residual disability of the knee which in this physician's opinion would not prevent the patient from returning to his former occupation as an oil field worker. However, Ferdinandtsen was seen subsequently by Dr. Byron M. UnKauf, another orthopedic surgeon, who concluded from his examination of January 21, 1969, that he had a permanent disability of from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent of the left leg and was totally disabled for oil field work. Dr. UnKauf expressed the opinion that the chondromalacia had increased and at some time in the future the plaintiff might have to submit to surgery for removal of the patella or even the fusion of his knee.
Dr. Irving Redler, another orthopedist, examined Ferdinandtsen at defendant's request on February 5, 1969. He found evidence of chondromalacia of the patella and atrophy of the muscles of the left thigh and estimated plaintiff's residual disability to be between twenty and twenty-five per cent of the left lower extremity. Dr. Redler expressed no opinion as to whether or not this would interfere with his performance of oil field work.
Plaintiff testified that he is not physically able to do oil field work. However, he has been gainfully employed in other occupations since he was discharged by Dr. Accardo.
Mr. Ferdinandtsen acknowledged that he made $3798.00 in the approximate seven months' period he worked for Delta Marine prior to the accident in August, 1964, which we calculate to be about $540.00 per month or $6500.00 per year. His income tax returns reflected that plaintiff earned $739.67 in 1965, $4750.00 in 1966, and $6482.00 in 1967. However, he testified that $630.28 of the latter sum was his wife's earnings. Ferdinandtsen's reported income from the operation of a butane gas truck in 1968 was about $4500.00. At the time of the trial in 1969, he was doing this and also was employed as a school bus driver earning an additional $325.00 a month for a ten month period.
This suit under the Jones Act (46 U.S.C.A. Section 688) and the general maritime law was submitted to the jury for a special verdict on written interrogatories. In its answers the jury found that the drilling barge was a vessel, plaintiff was a member of its crew, Delta Marine Drilling Company was negligent and such negligence played a part in plaintiff's injury, the barge was unseaworthy and this was a proximate cause of the accident, plaintiff was also negligent and it contributed to the accident to the extent of ten per cent and that the total amount of damages due plaintiff without reduction for contributory negligence was $68,000.00.
Thereafter, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for $61,200.00, together with court costs and interest from date of judicial demand.
The defendant has appealed suspensively, contending that the plaintiff failed to sustain the burden of proof to establish either neglect or unseaworthiness on its part, that the accident was caused by plaintiff's own negligence at least to the extent of fifty per cent, that the amount of the damages was excessive and that interest should...
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Hebert v. Diamond M. Co.
...result is more reasonable. (Citing Guilbeau v. Calzada, 240 So.2d 104 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1970), and Ferdinandtsen v. Delta Marine Drilling Company, 235 So.2d 641 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1970)) The clear import of these decisions is that federal maritime procedure is controlling, at least in proced......
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...appellate review in this case is the same as that of the Federal Courts, Ferdinandtsen v . Delta Marine Drilling Co., La.App., 235 So.2d 641 (4th Cir. 1970); Presley v. Upper Mississippi Towing Corp., 141 So.2d 411 (La.App.1st Cir. 1961). In Rogers v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co., 352 U.S. ......
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...v. Western Company of No. America, Inc., supra, note 1.15 Guilbeau v. Calzada, La.App., 240 So.2d 104; Ferdinandtsen v. Delta Marine Drilling Company, La.App., 235 So.2d 641.16 Trial by jury is not a matter of right in Louisiana in ". . . cases where a jury trial is specifically denied by l......
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Sewerage and Water Bd. of New Orleans v. Sanders, 4614
...by the state courts in maritime matters. In the cases of Guilbeau v. Calzada, 240 So.2d 104 (1970), and Ferdinandtsen v. Delta Marine Drilling Company, 235 So.2d 641 (1970), the court decreed that the appellate review of jury verdicts in maritime cases must be the same as those exercised by......