Stanley v. Guy Scroggins Construction Company, 18463.

• Decision Date: 13 December 1961
• Docket Number: No. 18463.,18463.
• Citation: 297 F.2d 374
• Parties: Eddie STANLEY, Appellant, v. GUY SCROGGINS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

297 F.2d 374 (1961)

Eddie STANLEY, Appellant, v. GUY SCROGGINS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 18463.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

December 13, 1961.

James A. Smith, Lake Charles, La., for appellant.

A. L. Plauche, Plauche & Plauche, Lake Charles, La., for Guy Scroggins General Oil Field Contracting, Inc.

Before CAMERON, BROWN and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge.

We plunge again into muddy waters: the legal complexities raised when a construction worker injured in offshore operations seeks recovery under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, as a "seaman".¹

Eddie Stanley sued his employer, the Guy Scroggins Construction Company, under the Jones Act for injuries suffered when a large wave threw him against an offshore oil drilling platform while he was preparing to pour cement in the pilings under the platform. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendant on the ground that Stanley was not a seaman within the meaning of the statute. We hold that the case must go to trial.

Scroggins does general construction work for a number of companies engaged in oil drilling operations. For several years it has had a contract with Magnolia Petroleum Company to provide labor for various construction jobs. The customary practice is for Magnolia to call Scroggins when it has work to be done, and for Scroggins to send a crew of men headed by a "pusher" (foreman) to the job. Time-sheets are kept while the men are working, and at two-week intervals Scroggins sends a bill to the oil company for the work done during the period. Most of the work is on land, but Scroggins also works on offshore locations. On these jobs the oil company provides transportation for the workers, since Scroggins has no boats used for that purpose.

Stanley worked for Scroggins for about ten years before his accident in 1958. For the first eight years he was a truck driver. Then he became a "pusher". In an affidavit, the office manager states: "While Stanley was a pusher, he and his crew worked all over Southwest Louisiana. The great majority of his work was done on land locations but on a number of occasions he worked for short periods offshore, ranging from a day to as much as a week." He stated that the company timesheets showed that the only occasion when Stanley worked on an offshore job during 1958 was the one when the accident occurred. During much of that year, however, Stanley was not employed by the Company.

June 2, 1958, Stanley and four workmen under his supervision left Cameron, Louisiana, to work on platforms of Magnolia Petroleum Company about forty miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. These are stationary platforms supported by steel and concrete pilings driven into the floor of the Gulf. A Magnolia crewboat picked the men up and took them out to the platform where they transferred to a tug operated by Halliburton, an independent party under contract with Magnolia. The Scroggins workers took extra clothes with them since they did not know how long the work would require them to stay offshore. While on the job they slept, ate, and bathed on the Halliburton boat. In his deposition Stanley said that the Scroggins workers had no functions to perform relating to the navigation or movement of the crewboat, which was operated by a separate crew. Their job was to pour cement into the pilings under several different platforms. The crewboat went from one platform to another, checking back to refill any piling that showed a leak. The Halliburton boat held the cement and large pumps which pumped the cement to the platform through a rubber hose. The crew on the boat operated the pumps. The Scroggins workers were transferred from the boat to the platform where they performed their work of pouring the cement into the pilings. Stanley generally worked on the platform, although it was not necessary for him to do so, and when they worked at night he stayed on the boat so that the pump operator could see him give the signal when a pile was filled. In getting from the boat to the platform the men used a rope swing. This was the source of Stanley's accident.

Wednesday, June 4, the boat approached one of the platforms shortly before midnight and secured lines to it. The four workers swung to the platform. Just as Stanley was about to swing, a large wave lifted the boat up. Stanley was thrown off balance. He swung out, clutching the rope, and banged into a steel ladder on the platform. He injured his left side and shoulder, but continued work until the job was finished the following day and also worked on his return to shore. By Sunday his shoulder had become painful; he went to a doctor.

The trial judge granted summary judgment for the defendant on the ground that Stanley was not assigned to any particular vessel and therefore was not a seaman. It is agreed that the basic facts in this case are not in dispute. When conflicting inferences may be drawn from undisputed underlying facts, however, the determination of whether an individual is a seaman must be made by the fact finder. Offshore Company v. Robison, 5 Cir., 1959, 266 F.2d 769, 780, 75 A.L.R.2d 1296. The decision of this question by the court as a matter of law can be sustained only if there is no evidentiary basis to support a jury finding that Stanley was a seaman when he suffered his injury. Since this case was determined by summary judgment, the standard of review is a bit stricter: the record must negate the probability that evidence calling for a contrary result might be developed at the trial. If the pleadings, affidavits, and depositions, available when the motion for summary judgment must be ruled on, fail to resolve any crucial question, summary judgment is premature, and the case must go to trial on the points left in uncertainty. Kennedy v. Silas Mason Co., 1948, 334 U.S. 249, 68 S.Ct. 1031, 92 L.Ed. 1347; Braniff v. Jackson Ave. — Gretna Ferry, Inc., 5 Cir., 1960, 280 F.2d 523, rehearing denied 289 F.2d 939; Robbins v. Milner Enterprises, Inc., 5 Cir., 1960, 278 F.2d 492; Whitaker v. Coleman, 5 Cir., 1940, 115 F.2d 305.

Two cases recently decided by this Court set the frame of reference for this case: Offshore Company v. Robison, 5 Cir., 1959, 266 F.2d 769, 75 A.L.R.2d 1296 and Texas Company v. Savoie, 5 Cir., 1957, 240 F.2d 674, cert. denied 355 U.S. 840. In Robison we reviewed the leading cases establishing the coverage of the Jones Act and found that its coverage has been broadly construed. The Act was passed in 1920. Enactment of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of 1927 restricted Jones Act coverage to "members of a crew of a vessel." Swanson v. Marra Bros., Inc., 1946, 328 U.S. 1, 66 S.Ct. 869, 871, 90 L.Ed. 1045. In a leading case decided by the First Circuit, Carumbo v. Cape Cod S. S. Co., 1 Cir., 1941, 123 F.2d 991, 995, the Jones Act was interpreted to cover "one who does any sort of work aboard a ship in navigation." The past years have produced a large number of increasingly varied craft that do not operate as vehicles for transportation but...