Washington v. Nat'l Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia

• Decision Date: 11 February 2019
• Docket Number: CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:16-cv-337
• Citation: 374 F.Supp.3d 1339
• Parties: Frederick WASHINGTON; and Mini Jolita Washington, Plaintiffs, v. The NATIONAL SHIPPING COMPANY OF SAUDI ARABIA, d/b/a Bahri, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia

374 F.Supp.3d 1339

Frederick WASHINGTON; and Mini Jolita Washington, Plaintiffs,

v.The NATIONAL SHIPPING COMPANY OF SAUDI ARABIA, d/b/a Bahri, Defendant.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:16-cv-337

United States District Court, S.D. Georgia, Savannah Division.

Signed February 11, 2019

ORDER

R. STAN BAKER, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This matter is before the Court on Defendant The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia's Motion for Summary Judgment. (Doc. 47.) Plaintiffs filed a Response in Opposition, (doc. 52), and Defendant filed a Reply, (doc. 54).¹ In this negligence case, brought under Section 905(b) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, Plaintiffs seek to recover for injuries Mr. Frederick Washington suffered while working on Defendant's vessel as a longshoreman in the Port of Savannah. (Doc. 38.) Defendant argues that the undisputed facts show it did not breach any of the duties it owed Mr. Washington and thus summary judgment is warranted. (Doc. 47.)

As the facts show, Mr. Washington narrowly escaped a fatal tragedy on the date in question and suffered injuries stemming from the incident. However, the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act does not make the owner of a vessel strictly liable for all injuries occurring on its vessel. While the Court sympathizes with the injuries Mr. Washington suffered, the undisputed facts demonstrate that Defendant is not legally responsible for those injuries. For the reasons set forth more fully below, the Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. (Doc. 47.) The Court DIRECTS the Clerk of Court to enter summary judgment in favor of Defendant and to CLOSE this case.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs initially filed this action, in its original form, in the State Court of Chatham County. (Doc. 1-1.) On December 15, 2016, former Defendant NSCSA (America), Inc. removed the case to this Court. (Doc. 1.) In May of 2017, the parties jointly substituted Defendant The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia, d/b/a Bahri, (hereinafter Bahri or Defendant) in place of Defendant NSCSA (America), Inc., as Bahri is the correct entity that owned the subject vessel at the time of the incident. (Docs. 12, 13.) Defendant Bahri then filed an unopposed Motion for Joinder of Mini Jolita Washington as a Plaintiff, regarding her potential loss of consortium claim, which the Court granted. (Docs. 28–30.) Thereafter, Plaintiffs filed a Second Amended and Recast Complaint ("Second Amended Complaint") alleging negligence and loss of consortium against Defendant Bahri.² (Doc. 38.)

Plaintiffs bring their action under the Savings to Suitors clause of 28 U.S.C. § 1333, the admiralty jurisdiction statute. (Doc. 38, p. 2). "[T]he savings-to-suitors clause [of the admiralty jurisdiction statute] provides a plaintiff in a maritime case alleging an in personam claim with three options: (1) the plaintiff may file suit in federal court under admiralty jurisdiction; (2) the plaintiff may file suit in federal court under diversity jurisdiction; or (3) the plaintiff may file suit in state court." St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Lago Canyon, Inc., 561 F.3d 1181, 1194 n.5 (11th Cir. 2009) (citations omitted) ); see also Russell v. Atl. & Gulf Stevedores, 625 F.2d 71, 72 (5th Cir. 1980) (holding that § 905(b) of the Longshore Act does not provide federal question jurisdiction); Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc) (adopting as binding precedent all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit handed down prior to October 1, 1981); Salty Dawg Expedition, Inc. v. Borland, 301 F.Supp.3d 1189, 1191 (M.D. Fla. 2017) ("The decisions consistently interpret the saving-to-suitors clause to preserve the right to a jury trial if the plaintiff in an admiralty dispute successfully invokes a jurisdiction other than admiralty (for example, diversity or federal question)."). Plaintiffs case was removed to this Court based on diversity jurisdiction. (Doc. 1.) Additionally, although the Second Amended Complaint does not explicitly invoke the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. ("the Longshore Act"), it is undisputed that this action is governed by the Longshore Act, specifically Section 905(b) thereof, since it is premised upon injuries Plaintiff Frederick Washington ("Mr. Washington" or "Plaintiff") suffered while working on the M/V BAHRI HOFUF, a foreign-flag vessel owned and controlled by Defendant Bahri.³ (See Docs. 47, 52, 54.)

On the day of the incident, August 1, 2016, a loaded trailer uncoupled from the tractor pulling it during discharge, rolled back down an internal ramp of the vessel, and caused Mr. Washington to injure his knee and shoulder as he moved out of the way of the oncoming trailer. (Doc. 52-1, pp. 8–9.) Mr. Washington, a member of the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1414 since 2013, was employed as a longshoreman by non-party SSA Stevedores ("SSA") that day.⁴ (Doc. 52-1, pp. 1–3.) As a longshoreman working for SSA, Mr. Washington assists in the process of loading and discharging cargo from ships that call the Port of Savannah. (Id. ) Bahri engages SSA to carry out the actual loading and discharging of cargo from its vessels when they are in the Port of Savannah. (Id. ) The vessel at issue here, the BAHRI HOFUF, is a "Roll-On/Roll-Off" vessel ("RO/RO") that allows cargo to be moved on and off the ship via wheeled conveyances using the vessel's stern ramp. (Id. )

On August 1, 2016, the BAHRI HOFUF called at the Port of Savannah to load and unload large steel coils, and Mr. Washington was one the of longshoremen hired by SSA to assist with cargo operations that day. (Id. at pp. 3–4.) Mr. Washington worked as a flagman along with two to four others and their "gang" header, Joseph Williams. (Id. ) Working alongside Mr. Washington's gang were Robert Manning, a Terberg tractor operator, Charles Hills, a forklift operator, as well as stevedores Daniel Sheppard and Kevin Dotson, who acted as supervisors for SSA during this operation. (Id. ) To offload the coils from the BAHRI HOFUF, "SSA, with input from the shipping line, determined that the coils would be discharged via MAFI trailer using powered equipment to pull [the] loaded MAFI."⁵ (Id. at p. 2 (quoting Dotson's Deposition, (doc. 36-2, p. 26).) This plan called for "pulling [the ship's] MAFI trailer with steel coils on top of it using the Terberg [T]ugmaster [tractor] from the ship," and was approved by SSA Supervisor Dotson.⁶ (Doc. 36-2, p. 28; see doc. 40-1, pp. 87–89.) The steel coils were loaded onto the flatbed MAFI trailer and then pulled off the vessel by a Terberg tractor, which was attached to the MAFI trailer by a "gooseneck" connector. (Doc. 52-1, pp. 4, 7.)

This connection hitch includes a "lip" on the Terberg that slides into the MAFI's "gooseneck tunnel" and over an internal connecting piece at the end of the tunnel, as well as two brackets, one on each side of the gooseneck lip, that fit into sockets on the sides of the gooseneck tunnel's entryway. (Doc. 47-1, pp. 4–6.) The MAFI trailer and Terberg tractor provided by Defendant Bahri, however, lacked their own safety chains and also lacked mounts to connect any other safety chains.⁷ (Id.; doc. 41-3, p. 74; see also doc. 36-2, p. 31; doc. 40-1, p. 29.) In addition to the MAFI trailer-Terberg tractor combination provided by Bahri, the cargo operation that day also utilized an SSA-provided TICO truck equipped with a fixed MAFI attachment, rather than a detachable gooseneck, to connect and pull a second MAFI trailer off the vessel.⁸ (Doc. 52-1, pp. 6–7; doc. 36-2, pp. 40–42.) Because this fixed attachment mechanism is "all one piece," the TICO truck does not utilize safety chains when pulling MAFI trailers. (Id. ) Although the BAHRI HOFUF's MAFI trailer and Terberg tractor lacked safety chains, SSA policy dictates they be used where available when offloading cargo with this method. (Doc. 36-2, p. 36.)

Mr. Manning, the driver of the Terberg tractor and MAFI trailer in question, testified that he was trained to "[a]lways use safety chains" with this combination of equipment. (Doc. 41-3, p. 74.) Other longshoremen echoed Mr. Manning's statement that safety chains are used with Terberg trucks. (Doc. 36-3, p. 59; doc. 36-7, p. 62.) Furthermore, while OSHA regulations and the MAFI trailer operating manual do not require safety chains, the gooseneck operating manual states that "rolltrailers" (such as the MAFI in question) connected with goosenecks "should [preferably] be equipped with safety hooks beside the coupling mouth for increased safety."⁹ (Doc. 46-1, pp. 87–88, 94, 152.) The manual also expressly warns of the heightened "[r]isk of unintended uncoupling of rolltrailers" on slopes. (Id. at p. 151.) However, on the day in question, Mr. Manning went ahead and used the BAHRI HOFUF's Terberg tractor and MAFI trailer without safety chains, because:

this particular Terberg didn't even have [any] mountings for anything because, see, they didn't have anything on any side. It didn't have any chains where you can mount [safety chains] and can use them. So I said this thing don't have any—so I thought it was something that was designed that way, you know.

(Doc. 41-3, p. 74.) Mr. Manning raised this concern about the lack of safety chains to Supervisor Dotson but "was informed by the stevedores and everybody else that it's fine to use this [particular] piece of equipment." (Id. at pp. 21, 41.) Unlike Mr. Manning and Supervisor Dotson, Mr. Washington was not aware that Bahri's Terberg tractor and MAFI trailer lacked safety chains. (Doc. 36-7, pp. 86–87.)

Prior to the incident, Supervisor Dotson did not notice any readily-visible unsafe conditions with regard to the Bahri-owned equipment, but he admitted that he did not undertake any inspection to determine whether the equipment was safe for its intended purpose.¹⁰ (Doc. 36-2, pp. 24–25.) Rather, Supervisor Dotson "assumed" it was safe since the equipment was familiar. (I...