Reeves v. B & S Welding, Inc.
| Decision Date | 26 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-3831,88-3831 |
| Citation | 897 F.2d 178 |
| Parties | James REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. B & S WELDING, INC., and Exxon Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Paul J. Galuszka, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff-appellant.
Elliott G. Courtright and Robert H. Wood, Jr., New Orleans, La., for Exxon Corp.
David F. Bienvenu and J.B. Treuting, New Orleans, La., for B & S Welding, Inc.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before POLITZ, KING and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
This case arises out of an accident and injury aboard an offshore gas production platform. The district court rendered judgment against Appellant James Reeves, who was injured in the accident. We are called upon to review the district court's findings of fact and the court's conclusion that Texas law applies because appellee Exxon Corp's. platform in the High Island Field is "adjacent" to Texas for purposes of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1333.
In December, 1985, James Reeves was employed as a welder's helper by B & S Welding, Inc. B & S had been hired by Exxon Corp. to repair and replace handrails, gratings, and other items on an offshore platform. This platform, number 342-B, is a fixed, unmanned gas production platform in the High Island Field in the Gulf of Mexico.
On the day of the accident appellant was working with a crew repairing handrails on a stairway on the platform. The other crew members were Ricky Sullivan, a welder's helper and Ralph Besson, a welder. Reeves' crew already had repaired and replaced one handrail. They began removing the other rail on the stairway. Before the handrail could be removed, appellant and Sullivan had to detach from the rail the emergency shut-down line (the "ESD line"), a 3/8 inch stainless steel tube that served as a remote sensor for the platform's fire suppression system. After Reeves and Sullivan detached the ESD line, Besson cut the handrail away from the stairway.
The accident occurred as appellant and Sullivan carried a section of detached handrail down the stairway for disposal. This section of rail was four to six feet long and weighed twenty-five to thirty pounds. Appellant Reeves led the way down the stairs carrying one end of the handrail. The evidence shows that the handrail became entangled with the ESD line causing the handrail to be jerked from Reeves' grasp, causing him to stumble. When this occurred, Sullivan pushed his end of the handrail in an attempt to throw the rail overboard. Unfortunately, the handrail landed on Reeves' boot, injuring his foot.
Appellant sued Exxon and B & S alleging claims under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. Sec. 688 and under General Maritime Law. National Union Fire Insurance Co. intervened in an attempt to recover medical expenses it had paid to Reeves as the worker's compensation insurer for B & S. Appellant's Jones Act claim against B & S was later dismissed on the ground that appellant did not qualify as a Jones Act seaman. B & S was dismissed from the case, but was subsequently named as a third-party defendant in an indemnity claim filed by third-party plaintiff Exxon.
In August, 1988, the case was tried before the district court, which issued findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court rendered judgment in favor of Exxon against appellant and in favor of Exxon against B & S on the third-party claim for indemnity. Reeves filed a timely notice of appeal. B & S did not appeal.
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (the "OCSLA") provides that the:
laws of each adjacent State ... are hereby declared to be the law of the United States for that portion of the subsoil and seabed of the Outer Continental Shelf and artificial islands and fixed structures erected thereon, which would be within the area of the state if its boundaries were extended seaward to the outer margin of the Outer Continental Shelf....
43 U.S.C. Sec. 1333(a)(2)(A). The district court held that Platform 342-B is "adjacent" to Texas. Appellant alleges that this conclusion was error. Appellant endeavors to establish that the platform is adjacent to Louisiana and subject to Louisiana law in order to avail himself of a possible claim under the Louisiana "ruin" statute. Under this statute, La.Civ.Code art. 2322, a building's owner is liable for damages caused by a buildings "ruin," whether the damage stems from a defect in the original construction or from the owner's failure to maintain the structure. Olsen v. Shell Oil Co., 365 So.2d 1285, 1288 (La.1979).
Testimony and exhibits before the district court showed that Platform 342-B is closer to the Texas coast than to the Louisiana coast. Charts submitted by Exxon also indicated that the High Island Field is considered to be "adjacent" to Texas, rather than Louisiana, by the United States Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management, the United States Department of Interior Mineral Management Service, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and the Coast Guard. In addition, courts have construed platforms located in the High Island Field to be adjacent to Texas under the OCSLA. See e.g. Hebert v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 618 F.Supp. 767 (W.D.La.1985) and J. Ray McDermott and Co. v. Fidelity & Casualty Co., 466 F.Supp. 353 (E.D.La.1979).
The boundary between Texas and Louisiana...
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