Fields v. Pool Offshore

• Decision Date: 27 July 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-30309,98-30309
• Citation: 182 F.3d 353
• Parties: (5th Cir. 1999) HERMAN FIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. POOL OFFSHORE, INC.;, Defendants, POOL COMPANY, incorrectly sued as Pool Offshore, Inc., Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 353

182 F.3d 353 (5th Cir. 1999)

HERMAN FIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. POOL OFFSHORE, INC.;, Defendants, POOL COMPANY, incorrectly sued as Pool Offshore, Inc., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 98-30309

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

July 27, 1999, Decided

As Amended August 5, 1999.

Certiorari Denied February 22, 2000

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

Before GARWOOD, BARKSDALE and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Herman Fields (Fields) brought a seaman's complaint for damages in state court, alleging negligence under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. App. 688, and the general maritime law. Defendants-appellees Pool Company (Pool) and Oryx Energy Company (Oryx) (collectively defendants) removed the case to federal court. Fields' motion to remand was denied, and the district court granted summary judgment on behalf of Pool (but not Oryx). This partial summary judgment was then certified under Rule 54(b) and Fields appealed. We affirm.

Facts and Proceedings Below

A spar is a nautical structure designed to float with the bulk of the hull below the waves--something akin to a giant buoy. As United States petroleum resources have dwindled, innovative production companies have attempted to exploit oil and gas resources in deeper ocean waters. In an attempt to economically extract petroleum from one of its deep water fields--located in the Visosca Knoll area of the outer continental shelf about one hundred miles off the Alabama coast--Oryx decided to design a production platform based around a spar. Oryx's Neptune Spar--which is apparently the first structure of its kind to be deployed off of our coast--consists of a cylinder with a diameter of seventy-two feet, and a length of seven hundred five feet. The section that pokes above the surface has a production deck attached to it and contains crew quarters, bilge pumps, life boats, and production facilities.

The Neptune Spar was installed at its current location in the Visosca Knoll area in September 1996. The Neptune Spar is anchored above the field's seven well heads by six chain wire lines which connect to six pilings driven one hundred eighty feet into the seabed. In addition, the structure is further fixed in place by the network of pipes used to extract and transfer the petroleum. A casing riser extends from each of the seven well-heads to the spar, and two pipelines transport the spar's product away from the location. The Neptune Spar has no organic means of propulsion. By tightening and slackening the six chains, the spar can be maneuvered to position it closer to a particular well-head, but such movement is only possible within a two hundred fifty foot range. According to affidavits in the record, this is the Neptune Spar's initial location and it will remain thus fixed in place there until the petroleum resources beneath it are exhausted, an event that is not predicted to occur for at least fifteen years.

Fields was an employee of Pool who worked as a roughneck/derrickhand on Pool's platform drilling "rigs." These rigs are packages of drilling equipment that are moved from location to location as needed. Fields was permanently assigned to rig no. 908, but when that rig was taken out of service he was assigned to rig no. 10. Oryx contracted for the services of rig no. 10, and arranged for its transport to the Neptune Spar. On February 20, 1997, while working on this rig aboard the Neptune Spar, a section of the rig unexpectedly struck Fields in the head. This accident allegedly caused "serious and permanent injuries to" Fields' "face, central nervous system and brain . . . resulting in his permanent disability." Fields is a citizen of Mississippi; Pool is a Texas corporation with its principal place of business in Texas; Oryx is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Texas.

On August 27, 1997, Fields filed the instant seaman's complaint in Louisiana state court, alleging negligence and invoking the Jones Act and the general maritime law. On October 8, 1997, the defendants filed a notice of removal on the basis of diversity of citizenship and, alternatively, under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), 43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq. They alleged that Fields' Jones Act claim was fraudulently pled to defeat removal jurisdiction in that Fields was not a Jones Act seaman and had no substantial connection to any vessel and the Neptune Spar was a fixed platform, not a vessel. On November 8, 1997, Fields filed a motion to remand, arguing that removal was precluded by the Jones Act, that Fields was a seaman and that the Jones Act claim had not been fraudulently pled. See 28 U.S.C. 1445(a). Defendants filed an opposition to the motion on November 25, 1997, and, in an order dated December 5, 1997, the district court rejected Fields' motion to remand, holding that as a matter of law the Jones Act claim was baseless as Fields was not a seaman and the Neptune Spar was a fixed platform, not a vessel. On that same day, Fields filed a motion requesting fifteen days' leave to respond to defendants' response to Fields' motion to remand. This motion was dismissed as moot. On December 16, 1997, Pool moved for summary judgment, arguing that, since Fields was Pool's employee and was not a Jones Act seaman and the Neptune Spar was a fixed platform on the outer continental shelf, OCSLA, 43 U.S.C. 1333(b), limited Fields' remedies against Pool to compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act ( LHWCA), 33 U.S.C. 905. Oryx did not join in the motion. Fields responded by claiming that material facts were in dispute regarding the Neptune Spar's potential vessel status and also moving for a new trial and/or rehearing of the court's prior determination that the Neptune Spar was not a vessel as a matter of law. On February 3, 1998, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Pool and denied Fields' motion for new trial or rehearing. Fields moved for Rule 54(b) judgment on the grant of summary judgment. The court granted the Rule 54(b) motion, and this appeal followed.

Discussion

Neither below nor on appeal has Fields questioned the removal on any basis other than that it is assertedly precluded by the presence of his Jones Act claim. It appears that the diversity of citizenship and amount in controversy requirements of 28 U.S.C. 1332(a) are met, and Fields has never contended otherwise. Hence, as no defendant is a citizen of the state in which the suit was filed, removal on the basis of diversity was proper under 28 U.S.C. 1441(a) & (b) if not barred by the Jones Act claim. Moreover, if the Jones Act did not preclude removal, it is also clear that it would have been proper because of OCSLA, as the district court held. Tennessee Gas Pipeline v. Houston Casualty Insurance Co., 87 F.3d 150, 154-56 (5th Cir. 1996).¹

It is settled that as a general rule Jones Act cases are not removable. Burchett v. Cargill, 48 F.3d 173, 175 (5th Cir. 1995). The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. App. 688, incorporates general provisions of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, and the latter expressly bars removal of suits thereunder. 28 U.S.C. 1445(a). However, a fraudulently pleaded Jones Act claim does not bar removal. Burchette, 48 F.3d at 175 ("'defendants may pierce the pleadings to show that the Jones Act claim has been fraudulently pleaded to prevent removal'", quoting Lackey v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 990 F.2d 202, 207 (5th Cir. 1993)). "While we have cautioned against pretrying a case to determine removal jurisdiction," the district court is authorized "to use a summary judgment-like procedure for disposing of fraudulent pleading claims." Burchette, 48 F.3d at 176. The court may deny remand where, but only where, it determines, after resolving "all disputed questions of fact and any ambiguities in the current controlling substantive law in plaintiff's favor," that there is "'no reasonable basis for predicting that the plaintiff might establish liability'" under the Jones Act. Id.²

In order to recover under the Jones Act, the plaintiff's complained-of injury must have been suffered while he was a seaman and in the course of his employment. Section 688(a) (authorizing action by "any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment"). In order to be a seaman, an individual (among other things) "must have a connection to a vessel in navigation (or to an identifiable group of such vessels) that is substantial in terms of both its duration and its nature." Harbor Tug and Barge Co. v. Papai, 520 U.S. 548, 117 S. Ct. 1535, 1540, 137 L. Ed. 2d 800 (1997) (quoting Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347, 115 S. Ct. 2172, 2179, 132 L. Ed. 2d 314 (1995) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)).

Fields does not dispute that he has no possible Jones Act claim if the Neptune Spar is not a vessel, and he claims no substantial connection to anything else which he contends is a vessel or fleet of vessels.³ And Fields has never contended that if the district court correctly determined that the Neptune Spar is not a vessel, it nevertheless erred in granting Pool's motion for summary judgment.

A vessel is "every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water." 1 U.S.C. 3. In general, the "greater the structure's resemblance to conventional seafaring craft, the greater the odds of securing vessel status". Gremillion v. Gulf Coast Catering Co., 904 F.2d 290, 293 (5th Cir. 1990). Unusual appearance alone will not suffice to preclude vessel status, however. We have recognized "a variety of special purpose structures, far removed from the conventional notions of ships and seagoing barges, to be vessels." Manuel v. P.A.W. Drilling & Well Service, Inc. 135 F.3d 344, 348 (5th Cir. 1998). Fields argues that the Neptune Spar is such a specialized structure,...