Marine Drilling, Inc. v. Landry
| Decision Date | 27 April 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 19042.,19042. |
| Citation | 302 F.2d 127 |
| Parties | MARINE DRILLING, INC., Appellant, v. Arthur LANDRY, Minor, through Stanley L. Landry, next friend, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
George W. Healy, III, New Orleans, La. (W. Eugene Davis and Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, New Orleans, La., of counsel), for appellant.
Meredith T. Holt, Lake Charles, La., Baker, Lamson & Plessala, Port Arthur, Tex., Cavanaugh, Hickman, Brame & Holt, Lake Charles, La. (O. I. Baker, Port Arthur, Tex., of counsel), for Arthur Landry, plaintiff-appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, CAMERON and GEWIN, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana, awarding plaintiff $812.00 for maintenance and cure, in a suit under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, precipitated by an injury sustained by the plaintiff-appellee while employed as a roustabout aboard the off shore submersible drilling rig, American Tidelands 101, on June 9, 1957.1
Appellee was eighteen years old when he was hired by American Tidelands, Inc. for summer work as a roustabout. On June 9, 1957, while working, appellee sustained a fracture of the right ankle when a section of drill collar rolled over his leg. Appellee was transported, at appellant's expense, to Terrebonne General Hospital and remained there until July 15, 1957, when he was discharged. Appellant paid all of appellee's medical expenses plus $35.00 a week from the time of the accident until the time he was discharged.
From the date of appellee's discharge from the hospital until September of 1957, he lived at the home of his parents and made no outlays for his own support. From September of 1957 through December 19, 1957, the date of maximum cure, appellee received his expenses from Texas A & M College pursuant to an athletic grant-in-aid scholarship. The lower court entered a judgment for maintenance and cure from the time he was discharged from the hospital until December 19, 1957, the date of maximum cure, although appellee had never expended any moneys of his own during that time.
The reasoning underlying the ancient doctrine of maintenance was made by Mr. Justice Story in Harden v. Gordon, Fed.Cas. No. 6,047, 2 Mason 541, which was to the effect that, since a seaman is traditionally alone, helpless, poor and friendless, the ship or her owner is therefore liable for his maintenance. However, this court in Field v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 5 Cir., 104 F.2d 849 (1939) took the position that a seaman cannot recover for past maintenance and cure unless he shows that he has paid for them. The Fourth...
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...46, 50, 68 S.Ct. 391, 92 L.Ed. 468 (1948), affirming United States v. Johnson, 160 F.2d 789, 798 (9th Cir. 1947); Marine Drilling, Inc. v. Landry, 302 F.2d 127 (5th Cir. 1962); Stankiewicz v. United Fruit S.S. Corp., 229 F.2d 580 (2d Cir. 1956); Williams v. United States, 228 F. 2d 129, 134......
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...a minor living at home with his parents or otherwise, cannot recover maintenance and cure from the ship owner. Marine Drilling, Inc. v. Landry, 302 F.2d 127, 128 (5th Cir. 1962); Field v. Waterman Steamship Corp., 104 F.2d 849 (5th Cir. 1939); Volkenburg v. Nederland Amerik Stoomv. Maats., ......
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Harper v. Zapata Off-Shore Co.
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