Skye v. Maersk Line, Ltd.

• Decision Date: 15 May 2014
• Docket Number: No. 12–16433.,12–16433.
• Citation: 751 F.3d 1262
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
• Parties: William C. SKYE, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. MAERSK LINE, LIMITED CORPORATION, d.b.a. Maersk Line Limited, Defendant–Appellant.

751 F.3d 1262

William C. SKYE, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.MAERSK LINE, LIMITED CORPORATION, d.b.a. Maersk Line Limited, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 12–16433.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 15, 2014.

Jason Robert Margulies, Eric Charles Morales, Michael A. Winkleman, Lipcon Margulies Alsina & Winkleman, PA, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Eddie Godwin, David W. McCreadie, Lau Lane Pieper Conley & McCreadie, PA, Tampa, FL, Nicholas Allen Applin, David J. Horr, Stephanie H. Wylie, Horr Novak & Skipp, PA, Miami, FL, for Defendant–Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. D.C. Docket No. 1:11–cv–21589–CMA.

Before PRYOR, JORDAN, and FAY, Circuit Judges.

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires us to decide whether a seaman can recover money damages under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, for an injury stemming from excessive work hours and an erratic sleep schedule. William Skye, formerly the chief mate of the Sealand Pride, a commercial vessel, suffers from left ventricular hypertrophy, which he complained that his employer, Maersk Line Limited Corporation d/b/a Maersk Line Limited, caused when it negligently saddled him with “excessive duties and duty time” such that he was “overworked to the point of fatigue.” At trial, the jury found Maersk liable to Skye, who the jury found suffered damages of $2,362,299.00, which the district court reduced to $590,574.75 to account for Skye's comparative negligence. Maersk moved for a judgment as a matter of law on the ground that the decision of the Supreme Court in Consolidated Rail Corp. v. Gottshall, 512 U.S. 532, 114 S.Ct. 2396, 129 L.Ed.2d 427 (1994), barred Skye's complaint. The district court denied that motion and entered judgment in favor of Skye. We REVERSE the denial of the motion for a judgment as a matter of law and RENDER judgment in favor of Maersk because Skye's complaint of an injury caused by work-related stress is not cognizable under the Jones Act, which concerns injuries caused by physical perils. See Gottshall, 512 U.S. at 558, 114 S.Ct. at 2411–12.

I. BACKGROUND

Between 2000 and 2008, William Skye worked on the Sealand Pride as chief mate. The Sealand Pride was first chartered and later operated by Maersk. Skye's job duties required him to work overtime, which adversely affected his health because of fatigue, stress, and lack of sleep. Skye regularly worked between 90 and 105 hours per week for 70 or 84 days at a time. At sea, Skye worked 12 hours; in port, he might have worked “round the clock.”

In 2000, Skye's cardiologist diagnosed him with a benign arrhythmia and recommended that Skye change his diet and rest more. In 2003, Skye returned to his cardiologist, who said his diagnosis had not changed. Skye's symptoms worsened in 2004 when Maersk began directly managing the Sealand Pride and increased his duty time. Skye worked 12 to 15 percent more overtime hours. And his working hours were replete with arduous duties: logging in cargo carrying hazardous material at various ports for eight hours at a time; inspecting roughly 144 “reefers,” which are refrigerated containers, to ensure they were keeping cargo cold; repairing “cell guides,” which hold cargo containers; and descending six stories via ladders and manholes into the hull of the Sealand Pride to inspect and repair the interior of the ballast tanks, which hold water to balance the ship.

By 2008, Skye was experiencing headaches, a sore back, and a burning sensation in his chest in addition to his arrhythmia, so Skye returned to his cardiologist, who diagnosed him with left ventricular hypertrophy, a thickening of the heart wall of the left ventricle, which his cardiologist attributed to hypertension. Skye's cardiologist concluded that Skye's “continued physical stress related to his job, with long hours and lack of sleep” caused his labile hypertension—intermittent high blood pressure while on the job—which, in turn, caused his left ventricular hypertrophy. The cardiologist advised Skye to stop working on the vessel.

In 2011, Skye filed a complaint against Maersk for negligence under the Jones Act. Skye alleged that his working conditions caused his left ventricular hypertrophy and that Maersk was negligent when it failed to provide him with reasonable working hours, an adequate crew, and adequate rest hours and instead “overworked [him] to the point of fatigue.” He alleged that these working conditions led to “physical damage to [his] heart.”

At trial, Skye and his cardiologist testified that his excessive hours and resulting stress were the most likely causes of his injury. Skye testified that his arduous work schedule and his lack of sleep had an adverse effect on his health. His cardiologist testified that Skye's working conditions “were a substantial contribution” to his left ventricular hypertrophy. The cardiologist opined that Skye developed labile hypertension because of the “stress of his job as chief mate” and “the lack of regular sleep,” which in turn “caused the left ventricular hypertrophy.” The cardiologist explained that “people who live under constant physical stress secrete large amounts of adrenaline” as part of a “fight or flight response.” And when “adrenaline is secreted for long periods of the day, that has a deleterious effect on their health.” He continued, “Long working hours and stress can lead to this fight or flight response, and that, in turn, can lead to left ventricular hypertrophy.”

At the conclusion of trial, Maersk moved for a directed verdict on the grounds that Skye could not recover for money damages for an injury caused by work-related stress and, alternatively, that the statute of limitations barred his claim. Maersk argued that Gottshall, in which the Supreme Court held that plaintiffs could not recover for work-related stress under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, barred Skye's claim as a matter of law. The district court denied the motion.

Before the jury deliberated, the court instructed the jury as follows that it must decide whether Skye's injury and its causes were physical or emotional:

The law holds that a seaman such as the plaintiff cannot receive compensation for a purely emotional injury. A purely emotional injury is an injury that has no physical causes, but, rather was solely caused by the injured person's perceptionof a nonphysical stress. The injured person, however, may receive compensation for an injury caused in any part by physical stress. You will need to determine whether plaintiff's injury is a physical one or an emotional one. If you determine it is an emotional one, in order to recover, plaintiff has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that his injury was sustained as a result of his fear for his own physical safety or incurred while in a zone of immediate physical danger.

The district court provided the jury with a special verdict form that required it to decide whether Skye's injury was “physical” or “emotional.”

The jury returned a verdict finding that Skye sustained a physical injury, but that Skye was 75 percent at fault for his injuries. It found that Skye suffered damages of $2,362,299.00, which the district court reduced to $590,574.75 to account for Skye's comparative negligence. After the verdict, Maersk moved for a judgment as a matter of law, which the district court denied.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review the denial of a motion for a judgment as a matter of law de novo and apply the same standards as the district court. Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 664 F.3d 883, 892 (11th Cir.2011). We will reverse the denial of a motion for a judgment as a matter of law “only if the facts and inferences point overwhelmingly in favor of one party, such that reasonable people could not arrive at a contrary verdict.” Id. (internal quotation mark omitted). “We will not second-guess the jury or substitute our judgment for its judgment if its verdict is supported by sufficient evidence.” Lambert v. Fulton Cnty., Ga., 253 F.3d 588, 594 (11th Cir.2001). “We view all the evidence and draw all inferences from it in the light most favorable to ... the nonmoving party.” Ash, 664 F.3d at 892.

III. DISCUSSION

The Jones Act provides a cause of action in negligence for “a seaman” personally injured “in the course of employment,” 46 U.S.C. § 30104, in the same way that the Federal Employers' Liability Act provides a cause of action in negligence for injured railroad employees against their employers, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51–60. The Jones Act incorporated the remedial scheme of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, and case law interpreting the latter statute also applies to the Jones Act. 46 U.S.C. § 30104 (“Laws of the United States regulating recovery for personal injury to, or death of, a railway employee apply to an action under this section.”); see also O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 318 U.S. 36, 38–39, 63 S.Ct. 488, 490, 87 L.Ed. 596 (1943).

Not all work-related injuries are cognizable under the Federal Employers' Liability Act and, by extension, the Jones Act. See Gottshall, 512 U.S. at 555–56, 114 S.Ct. at 2410–11. The Supreme Court has made clear that these statutes are “aimed at ensuring ‘the security of the person from physical invasions or menaces.’ ” Id. (emphasis added) (quoting Lancaster v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 773 F.2d 807, 813 (7th Cir.1985)). For employers to be liable, the employees' injuries must be “caused by the negligent conduct of their employers that threatens them imminently with physical impact.” Id. at 556, 114 S.Ct. at 2411.

Skye's injury is not cognizable under the Jones Act even when we draw all inferences from the evidence presented to the jury in the light most favorable to him and assume that his work schedule caused him to develop left ventricular hypertrophy. The Jones Act does not allow a seaman to recover for injuries caused by work-related stress because work-related stress is not a “physical...