Smith v. Falcon Seaboard, Inc., 72-1365 Summary Calendar.
| Decision Date | 24 July 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 72-1365 Summary Calendar.,72-1365 Summary Calendar. |
| Citation | 463 F.2d 206 |
| Parties | Marguerite Andrus SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FALCON SEABOARD, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Donald J. Tate, Paul C. Tate, Tate & Tate, Mamou, La., for plaintiff-appellant.
James E. Diaz, Davidson, Meaux, Onebane & Donohoe, Lafayette, La., for defendant-appellee.
Before GEWIN, AINSWORTH and SIMPSON, Circuit Judges.
Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied July 24, 1972.
Title 43, U.S.C. Section 1333(b)1 provides that:
"The United States district courts shall have original jurisdiction of cases and controversies arising out of or in connection with any operations conducted on the outer Continental Shelf for the purpose of exploring for, developing, removing or transporting by pipeline the natural resources, or involving rights to the natural resources of the subsoil and seabed of the outer Continental Shelf, and proceedings with respect to any such case or controversy may be instituted in the judicial district in which any defendant resides or may be found, or in the judicial district of the adjacent State nearest the place where the cause of action arose."
It is provided by Title 43, U.S.C., Section 1333(c), in relevant part that:
In this appeal, the widow of a worker assigned to an offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana challenges as unconstitutional the difference in treatment afforded, for purposes of compensation, to workers assigned to platforms and those assigned to vessels, by Section 1333(c). We find no constitutional infirmity in the referenced statute and affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint.
On or about September 4, 1970, at night, Arthur Smith fell to his death from an oil and gas drilling rig mounted on an offshore drilling platform. His widow, the plaintiff-appellant, is receiving benefits under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, Title 33, U.S.C., Section 901 et seq. Mrs. Smith brought this action in admiralty and in law to recover full damages for the death of her husband alleging negligence of the decedent's employer and unseaworthiness of the drilling platform. At the motion of Falcon Seaboard Inc., the defendant and employer of the decedent, the district court dismissed the action because of the exclusivity of remedy provision of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, Title 33 U.S.C., Section 905.2
As she did in the district court, Mrs. Smith argues here that Congress has created an unreasonable classification, in violation of the principles of equal protection of the laws, by specifying that employees assigned to stationary drilling platforms on the outer Continental Shelf are limited to the recovery authorized by the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act while employees assigned to vessels may avail themselves of the more liberal features of the law of admiralty and what she refers to on brief as "a veritable cornucopia of entirely different remedies—the Jones Act, the maritime wrongful death action, the right to indemnity for unseaworthiness (or unjobworthiness), the Death on the High Seas Act, possibly maintenance and cure benefits assuming non-instantaneous death, and—functionally or practically—jury trial, comparative or proportionate fault, a judicial forum, full damages, and the prospect of securing vigorous representation of counsel under traditional contingent fee arrangements." Sh...
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