Gruver v. Lesman Fisheries Inc.

• Decision Date: 06 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-35916.,05-35916.
• Citation: 489 F.3d 978
• Parties: Jeff GRUVER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LESMAN FISHERIES INC.; Bob Lesman; f/v Sunset Charge, Official Number 534685, in rem, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

489 F.3d 978 Jeff GRUVER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
LESMAN FISHERIES INC.; Bob Lesman; f/v Sunset Charge, Official Number 534685, in rem, Defendants-Appellees. No. 05-35916. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted March 7, 2007. Filed June 6, 2007.

[489 F.3d 980]

John W. Merriam, The Law Office of John Merriam, Seattle, WA, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Philip W. Sanford, Holmes Weddle & Barcott, Seattle, WA, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington; Robert J. Bryan, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-05428-RJB.

Before: DIARMUID F. O'SCANNLAIN and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges, and SAM E. HADDON,^* District Judge.

BERZON, Circuit Judge.

This case raises the question whether a fight aboard a ship between a seaman and his former maritime employer over unpaid wages can give rise to federal admiralty jurisdiction. We find that it does and therefore reverse the district court's dismissal of the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

I.

Jeff Gruver worked as a deckhand for Lesman Fisheries, Inc. aboard the shrimp and crab boat F/V Sunset Charge ("the Sunset Charge") from May through June 2004. Robert Lesman¹ is the owner and captain of the Sunset Charge and was Gruver's direct supervisor during the time Gruver worked on the boat.

Gruver quit his job on the Sunset Charge in early June 2004 to begin working on a different fishing vessel, the F/V Adventurous ("the Adventurous"). At the time he left his job on the Sunset Charge, Gruver was owed some wages. Soon thereafter, Gruver angrily confronted Lesman at the dock, demanding his unpaid wages. Lesman mailed Gruver his final paycheck. While the check was in transit,

489 F.3d 981

Gruver called and left a threatening message on Lesman's voicemail. In the message, Gruver demanded the money and warned that he would hurt Lesman and damage the Sunset Charge if he was not paid. Lesman did not return the call, and Gruver received the final paycheck in the mail the next day. Unsatisfied with the amount of the check, Gruver again called Lesman and left a message threatening Lesman and his property if the full amount of wages owed to him was not paid.

Late in the night on June 18, 2004, Gruver was lying in his bunk on the Adventurous, waiting for the boat to leave for a pre-dawn trip to the fishing grounds.² Lesman boarded the Adventurous looking for Gruver. Lesman claims he was attempting to give Gruver a check for the remainder of his wages and that Gruver attacked him, resulting in a fight. Gruver, by contrast, claims that Lesman found Gruver asleep in his bunk and, with the help of Lesman's 380-pound nephew, beat Gruver severely, attempting to break his legs and vowing to kill him for leaving the threatening messages.

Gruver managed to escape to a neighbor's house on land, where he rang the doorbell and asked the man who answered to call an ambulance. Gruver suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung as a result of the fight. He had to be hospitalized for several days due to his injuries. Gruver later reported the incident to the police, and Lesman eventually was arrested.

On July 22, 2004, Gruver filed a complaint for damages in federal district court against Robert Lesman, Lesman Fisheries, Inc., and the Sunset Charge pursuant to admiralty and maritime law, citing 28 U.S.C. § 1333, 46 U.S.C. § 10602, and 45 U.S.C. § 56. The complaint charged Lesman with negligence and unpaid wages. Gruver thereafter filed an amended complaint on March 14, 2005, again predicated on admiralty jurisdiction, asserting causes of action for assault and unpaid wages. The parties later stipulated to the dismissal of the wage claims, leaving only Gruver's negligence claim under maritime law³ for Lesman's alleged assault.

Shortly thereafter, Lesman filed a motion to dismiss the case pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court granted the motion on August 29, 2005, holding that Gruver's suit must be dismissed because he had failed to establish federal admiralty jurisdiction. Gruver timely appealed the order.⁴

489 F.3d 982

II.

We review de novo the district court's dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Campbell v. Redding Med. Ctr., 421 F.3d 817, 820 (9th Cir.2005). Federal district courts have original jurisdiction over "[a]ny civil case of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction." 28 U.S.C. § 1333(1); see also U.S. CONST. art. III, § 2. Historically, admiralty⁵ jurisdiction turned solely on the question of whether the tort occurred on navigable waters. Jerome B. Grubart, Inc. v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 513 U.S. 527, 531, 115 S.Ct. 1043, 130 L.Ed.2d 1024 (1995). Over time, however, the test has been refined. Today, a party seeking to invoke federal maritime jurisdiction over a tort claim must satisfy both a location test and a connection test.⁶ Id. at 534, 115 S.Ct. 1043.

The location test focuses on "whether the tort occurred on navigable water or whether injury suffered on land was caused by a vessel on navigable water." Id. The connection test has two prongs, each of which must be met for admiralty jurisdiction to be proper: "A court, first, must assess the general features of the type of incident involved to determine whether the incident has a potentially disruptive impact on maritime commerce[.]" Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The second prong of the connection test requires us to examine "whether the general character of the activity giving rise to the incident shows a substantial relationship to traditional maritime activity." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

Neither the location test nor the first prong of the connection test are at issue in this appeal. The parties agree the location test is met because the alleged assault took place aboard the Adventurous while the ship was floating on navigable waters. See id. (holding location test may be...