Warren v. Sabine Towing and Transportation Company, Inc.
| Decision Date | 30 October 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01 0573-CA.,01 0573-CA. |
| Citation | 831 So.2d 517 |
| Parties | James Elmer WARREN, Jr. v. SABINE TOWING AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, INC., et al. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Lawrence Emerson Abbott, Sarah Elizabeth Iiams, Monique M. Weiner, Abbott, Simses, Knister & Kuchler, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants/Appellants Conoco, Inc.
Dow Chemical Company, Richard E. Gerard, Jr., Scofield, Gerard, Veron, Singletary & Pohorelsky, Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellant Marathon Oil Company.
David LeRoy Hoskins, Attorney at Law, Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellant Chevron U.S.A., Inc., individually and as successor to Gulf Oil Company.
Louis C. Woolf, Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter, L.L.C., Knoxville, TN, for Defendants/Appellants Marathon Oil Company Chevron U.S.A., Inc., individually and as successor to Gulf Oil Company.
William B. Baggett, Wells T. Watson, William B. Baggett, Jr., Baggett, McCall, Burgess & Watson, Lake Charles, LA, J. Edward Knoll, The Knoll Law Firm, Marksville, LA, J. Keith Hyde, Provost & Umphrey Law Firm, L.L.P., Beaumont, TX, for Plaintiff/Appellee James Elmer Warren, Jr./Evelyn Yvonne Warren.
Court composed of ULYSSES GENE THIBODEAUX, JIMMIE C. PETERS, and MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, Judges.
This litigation arises from James Elmer Warren, Jr.'s exposure to benzene and benzene-containing products during the course of his employment with Sabine Towing and Transportation Company, Inc. (Sabine Towing). He initially brought suit against twenty-six defendants,1 seeking general, special, and punitive damages. After his death, Mr. Warren's widow, Evelyn Yvonne Warren, qualified as administratrix of his estate and continued the litigation as party plaintiff. Most of the originally named defendants settled before trial and were dismissed from the litigation. The matter ultimately went to trial with only Chevron U.S.A., Inc. (Chevron), individually and as successor to Gulf Oil Company (Gulf); Conoco, Inc. (Conoco); Marathon Oil Company (Marathon); and Dow Chemical Company (Dow) remaining as defendants. These defendants now appeal the trial court judgment rendered against them. Mrs. Warren has answered the appeal, seeking additional relief.
Mr. Warren began employment with Sabine Towing in 1944 as a seaman assigned to one of its vessels. At different times during his thirty-nine-year career with Sabine Towing, Mr. Warren held various positions, including seaman, quartermaster, boatswain, third mate, second mate, chief mate, and master. The United States Coast Guard certified Mr. Warren as qualified to hold the position of third mate in February of 1955; second mate in March of 1959; chief mate in July of 1964; and ship's master in July of 1970. At some point after each of these certifications, Sabine Towing promoted Mr. Warren. He retired in 1983, having served the last years of his career as ship's master.
In 1998, Mr. Warren was diagnosed as having myeloproliferative disorder, a blood disease. On December 4, 1998, he brought this suit, alleging that he contracted the disease as a result of exposure to the benzene and benzene-containing products he transported while working for Sabine Towing. The myeloproliferative disorder soon evolved into acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and, on March 23, 2000, he died.
The five-day trial on the merits began on October 23, 2000. After completion of the evidence, the trial court took the matter under advisement and, on December 27, 2000, rendered a judgment awarding the following amounts:
Survival damages $2,000,000.00
Wrongful death damages
Evelyn Yvonne Warren $ 500,000.00
D'Juana Diane Hunter $ 200,000.00
Donna Lynn Lott $ 200,000.00
Punitive damages $2,500,000.002
Medical expenses $ 427,420.53
Funeral expenses $ 6,801.00
Regarding the survival damages and medical and funeral expenses, the trial court assessed fault as follows: Sabine Towing-33%; Chevron, individually-25%; Conoco-25%; Chevron, as successor to Gulf-10%; Marathon-5%; and Dow-2%. Regarding the wrongful death damages, the trial court reallocated the 33% fault of Sabine Towing to the remaining defendants as follows: Chevron individually-37.313%; Conoco-37.313%; Chevron, as successor to Gulf-14.925%; Marathon-7.462%; Dow-2.985%.
In its reasons for judgment, the trial court concluded that Mr. Warren sustained substantial exposure to benzene and benzene-containing products manufactured by Chevron, Gulf, Conoco, and Marathon throughout his career with Sabine Towing. Further, the trial court concluded that this exposure was not limited to the shipping aspects of his employment, but extended to the processes of loading and unloading benzene and benzene-containing products at facilities owned and operated by Chevron, Gulf, Conoco, Marathon, and Dow. The trial court further concluded that Mr. Warren died of AML, that his death was a result of his benzene exposure, that the defendants had a duty to warn him about the long-term health hazards associated with benzene, and that they breached that duty.
The defendants have appealed, asserting a total of seventeen assignments of error. As a group, the defendants have raised six assignments of error common to them all:
(1) The trial court erred in concluding that the manufacturers of products transported by vessels on which [Mr. Warren] worked as a seaman, and in one instance simply the purchaser of the delivered product, owed a duty to protect [him] against allegedly injurious exposure to the product, when its risks were known to the seaman's employer.
(2) The trial court erred in concluding that the blood disorder contracted by [Mr. Warren] was caused by exposure to the products being transported on the vessels on which he served during his employment.
(3) The trial court erred by awarding non-pecuniary damages, including punitive damages, against the defendants: (a) when, such damages are not awardable under the Death on the High Seas Act, which governs the actions arising from the seaman's death, or under general maritime law; (b) when, even if punitive damages were awardable under general maritime law, there was a complete lack of evidence to support a conclusion that any of the defendants engaged in conduct which was willful or wanton in nature; and (c) in dividing the punitive damage award into five equal shares against the five defendants remaining in the case at trial.
(4) The trial court erred in its apportionment of fault, in that it (a) failed to assign percentages of fault to the defendants which settled out of the case prior to trial; (b) grossly underestimated the fault of the decedent's employer; and (c) re-allocated the fault of the employer to the remaining defendants in the wrongful death awards.
(5) The trial court erred in awarding wrongful death damages to the two surviving adult children, who never became plaintiffs in the litigation; and by awarding non-pecuniary damages in the wrongful death action after ruling that they could not be awarded in the survival action.
(6) The trial court erred in its evaluation of damages and award of judicial interest by (a) awarding $2 million in the survival action; (b) awarding $427,420.53 in medical expenses without accounting for the fact that a substantial portion of that sum was never charged to the plaintiff and her decedent as a result of the provisions of Medicare; and (c) awarding judicial interest from date of judicial demand on the wrongful death awards and the punitive damage awards.
Chevron has asserted the following assignments of error specific to it:
(1) The trial court erred in assessing punitive damages against [it], and particularly in assessing separate and duplicative awards of punitive damages against [it] individually and [it] as the successor to Gulf.
(2) The trial court erred in admitting into evidence the depositions of Howard Runion, Roy Gibson, Dennis Tyburski, and William McClelland.
Conoco has asserted the following assignments of error specific to it:
(1) [It] had no duty, and certainly no "higher duty," to warn that exposure to the products which Mr. Warren transported could cause cancer, because none of the Conoco products which Mr. Warren transported were then or are today classified as human carcinogens.
(2) Assuming Conoco is liable, the trial court erred in its apportionment of 25% liability to Conoco (and 37.313% as to wrongful death damages).
(3) The trial court erred in awarding punitive damages against [it].
Marathon has asserted the following assignments of error specific to it:
(1) The trial court erred in apportioning five per cent (5%) of fault to [it] for which [Mr. Warren] hauled only two loads of gasoline over a thirty-nine year career.
(2) The trial court erred in awarding punitive damages against [it].
Dow has asserted the following assignments of error specific to it:
(1) The trial court erred in finding that [it] owed a duty to [Mr. Warren].
(2) The trial court erred in apportioning any fault at all against [it].
(3) The trial court erred in apportioning two percent (2%) of fault to [it].
(4) The trial court erred in awarding punitive damages against [it].
Mrs. Warren has answered the appeal, seeking an amendment to the trial court judgment to reflect that all damages be awarded solely to her as the personal representative of her husband's estate and seeking damages for loss of household services due to the illness and death of her husband.
Although the trial on the merits lasted only five days, it produced a voluminous evidentiary record consisting of trial testimony and exhibits, including the deposition testimony of Mr. Warren. Despite the nature of the litigation and size of the record, however, the factual background giving rise to the litigation is not in serious dispute.
During Mr. Warren's...
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