Sea-Land Service v. Sellan, SEA-LAND

• Decision Date: 26 October 2000
• Docket Number: SEA-LAND,No. 99-12571
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) SERVICE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Pedro SELLAN, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 848

231 F.3d 848 (11th Cir. 2000)

SEA-LAND SERVICE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Pedro SELLAN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 99-12571.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

October 26, 2000.

November 7, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. (No. 98-01311-CV-JLK), James Lawrence King, Judge.

Before EDMONDSON and MARCUS, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI^*, Judge.

RESTANI, Judge:

Appellant Pedro Sellan ("Sellan") appeals from a final judgment declaring enforceable a Settlement Agreement (the "Agreement") to preclude plaintiff from proceeding on an injury claim against appellee Sea-Land Service, Inc. ("Sea- Land"). Sellan alleges that the relevant provision of the Agreement is voided by The Federal Employers' Liability Act ("FELA"), 45 U.S.C.A. 55 (1994), because the provision exempts Sea-Land, a common carrier, from liability under the Act by releasing it from future claims.

We affirm the district court's holding that the provision at issue is part of a valid settlement of a present claim of total disability for sea duty and represents an enforceable agreement that Sellan will not work for Sea-Land in the future, and if he does, that Sea-Land is not responsible for his injuries. Thus, Sellan is precluded from pursuing the new injury claim against Sea-Land.

Jurisdiction

The district court had federal question jurisdiction over the complaint seeking declaratory relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2201 et seq. and 28 U.S.C. 1333. Appellate jurisdiction is under 28 U.S.C. 1291, as this is an appeal from a final judgment.

Facts

On November 6, 1993, while employed as a chief steward aboard Sea-Land's vessel, Sea-Land Expedition, Sellan experienced an onset of low back pain, which he reported occurred after moving a heavy box of meat. As a result of this injury, Sellan brought a claim against Sea-Land for total disability from work at sea. Sea-Land paid all maintenance and all medical expenses for Sellan's November 6, 1993, back injury claim, including surgery.

On January 5, 1995, Sellan's surgeon reported to Sea-Land that Sellan was permanently not fit for duty. On May 12, 1995, he found Sellan had reached maximum medical improvement and assigned a permanent disability of 56% of the total body according to the Minnesota guidelines.

On account of Sellan's November 6, 1993 injury and its consequences, Sea-Land paid Sellan $364,500 in exchange for a Release and a "Settlement Agreement Not to Sail or Work" dated July 27, 1995. In the Agreement, Sellan acknowledged "that [his] doctors have recommended that he no longer engage in the career as merchant seaman" and "[f]or this reason [he] further states and acknowledges that it is for his own benefit and safety not to seek employment and/or to navigate aboard vessels owned, managed, and/or operated by Sea-Land Service, Inc."

Paragraph 4 of the Agreement reads:

In addition to, and as an integral part of, the above referenced Release of All Rights, and in consideration of total payments equaling Three Hundred Sixty Four Thousand Five Hundred and 00/100 Dollars ($364,000.00), the parties have agreed that Mr. Sellan will not work, sail and/or navigate, and/or seek to sail, navigate or work, in any capacity, including shore relief, aboard vessels owned, managed, and/or operated by Sea-Land Service, Inc., and/or any of its affiliates and/or subsidiaries, in the future.

In pertinent part, paragraph 5 reads¹:

However, if for any reason, including oversight or consent, Mr. Pedro Sellan is able to re-engage in service aboard a vessel owned, managed and/or operated by Sea-Land Service ... then he shall do so at his own risk, and the company will bear no responsibility for an illness and/or injuries he may suffer while in service aboard any such vessel.

In the spring of 1997, Sellan paid his back dues to the Seafarer's International Union and, on April 14, 1997, underwent a union physical for purposes of assessing his duty status. The union doctor performing the physical testified that he was not told by Sellan of the medical history surrounding the November 6, 1993 incident. Accordingly, Sellan was declared fit for duty.

During a time when Sea-Land was unable to conduct pre-employment background checks because of technical difficulties Sellan was dispatched from his union's hiring hall to join plaintiff's vessel, Sea-Land Crusader, again as chief steward. The collective bargaining agreement gives the union the power in the first instance to designate the employees to be sent to a Sea-Land vessel. When the Union dispatches a seaman to a vessel, he or she may pass on the job for any reason and wait for the next available assignment. Sellan, however, boarded the Sea-Land Crusader without informing anyone about either the Agreement never again to sail aboard a Sea-Land vessel or the finding of permanent not-fit-for-duty status.

On October 31, 1997, about three weeks after he returned to work, Sellan reported re-injuring his back aboard the Sea-Land Crusader in circumstances substantially identical to his November 6, 1993, injury. The October 31, 1997, injury occurred in the ordinary course of performance of duties as chief steward, again as a claimed result of lifting a heavy box of meat in the vessel's galley.

Sea-Land commenced this action for judgment declaring the Agreement with Sellan enforceable to preclude him from pursuing an action in Florida state court seeking recovery of damages on account of the October 31, 1997, injury. The district court found that Sellan, with full understanding and in exchange for appropriate consideration, had executed a general release and entered into the Agreement, and as a result was bound by its terms; and that the Agreement did not run afoul of FELA, 45 U.S.C. 55. The district court specifically enforced the terms of the Agreement and entered final declaratory judgment in Sea-Land's favor.

The only issue pursued by Sellan in this appeal is whether Paragraph 5 of the Agreement Not to Sail or Work violates the following provision of FELA:

Any contract, rule, regulation, or device whatsoever, the purpose or intent of which shall be to enable any common carrier to exempt itself from any liability created by this chapter, shall to that extent be void ....

45 U.S.C. 55.

Discussion

Appellant challenges none of the district court's factual findings. We apply a de novo standard of review to the issue of law before us, that is, whether Paragraph 5 of the agreement violates FELA. Godfrey v. BellSouth Telecom., Inc., 89 F.3d 755, 757 (11th Cir.1996).

The Supreme Court has held that a release does not violate FELA where it is "not a device to exempt from liability but is a means of compromising a claimed liability ...." Callen v. Pa. R.R. Co., 332 U.S. 625, 631, 68 S.Ct. 296, 92 L.Ed. 242 (1948). In Callen, the Court upheld a general release, in exchange for two hundred and fifty dollars, of the employer railroad from liability for specific injuries sustained in an accident. Callen, 332 U.S. at 626, 68 S.Ct. 296. In contrast, in Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington R.R. Co. v. Schubert, 224 U.S. 603, 612-13, 32 S.Ct. 589, 56 L.Ed. 911 (1912), and Duncan v. Thompson, 315 U.S. 1, 7-8, 62 S.Ct. 422, 86 L.Ed. 575 (1942), the Court rejected under FELA general releases that did not involve express settlement of claims for specific injuries.

Rights under FELA fundamentally are premised on the existence of an employment relationship. The purpose of 45 U.S.C. 55 is to prevent employers from undermining the liability scheme created by FELA for their negligence. Philadelphia, 224 U.S. at 609, 32 S.Ct. 589. It prevents employers from restricting FELA rights as a condition of employment. See Wicker v. Consol. Rail Corp., 142 F.3d 690, 700-01 (3rd Cir.1998).

Here, Sea-Land compromised a claim of permanent total disability and attempted to prevent a re-injury to Sellan, which would result in detriment to him and to Sea- Land. The Agreement was designed to make sure that a totally disabled seaman would not work for Sea-Land as a seaman under the Jones Act. Such an agreement is not a violation of a federal statute designed to protect railroad workers and seamen from overreaching as a condition of either obtaining or maintaining employment.

In general, an employer is entitled to refuse re-employment to avoid liability for re-injuries following a lifetime settlement for a claimed permanent disability. See, e.g., Sands v. Union Pac. R. Co., 148 F.Supp. 422 (D.Or.1956)(injured railroad worker seeking re-employment estopped from asserting fitness for duty given high risk of re-injury). Under FELA, a carrier will be liable if its negligence "played any part, even the slightest, in producing the employee's injury." Armstrong v. Kansas City S. Ry. Co., 752 F.2d 1110, 1113 (5th Cir.1985). FELA employers also may be liable if they negligently assign...