Seals v. Shell Oil Co.
Seals v. Shell Oil Co.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER AND REASONS
Before the Court is Defendant Shell Oil Company’s (“Shell” or “Defendant”) Motion for Summary Judgment,
This Order will decide Defendant Shell’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiff Seals’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Liability of Shell Offshore Company for Vessel Negligence, and Defendant Shell’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. After considering the motions, the memo-randa in support, the memoranda in oppo
I. Background
A. Factual Background
This matter arises out of an alleged incident occurring on December 23, 2010, on the Shell PERDIDO platform located two hundred miles off the coast of Texas.
As part of his duties as a platform mechanic, Plaintiff was required to regularly inspect the PERDIDO Fast Rescue Craft, a enclosed life boat that was suspended from the PERDIDO.
B. Procedural Background
Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on August 1, 2012.
II. Parties’ Arguments
A. Defendant Shell’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Defendant Shell argues Plaintiffs claims are barred by Section 1333(b) of the Outer Continental Shelf Land’s Act (“OCSLA”), which makes the Longshore and Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act (“LHWCA”) Plaintiffs exclusive remedy for the injuries he suffered. As Defendant understands Fifth Circuit precedent, in deciding whether OCSLA applies a court is to look to whether the plaintiffs employment furthered mineral development on the Outer Continental Shelf and whether the plaintiffs injuries would have not occurred “but for” his employment.
Here, according to Defendant, both prongs of the OCSLA test are met. Defendant asserts that Plaintiffs alleged injuries occurred on Shell’s PERDIDO spar, a work platform secured to the sea floor of the Outer Continental Shelf and which is involved in offshore mineral production in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, according to Defendant, at the time of his injuries, Plaintiffs activities as a mechanic were being performed within the course and scope of his employment in furtherance of Shell’s drilling operations. Therefore, Defendant argues, “[Plaintiff’s alleged incident is governed by OCSLA.” Finally, Defendant argues that OCSLA bars Plaintiff from suing Shell because Section 1333(b) of OCSLA makes the LHWCA applicable to incidents that occur on the Outer Continental Shelf. Significantly, under the LHWCA, Plaintiff is barred from bringing this action against Shell, according to Defendant, because the LHWCA states, that: “The right to compensation or benefits under this Act shall be the exclusive remedy to an employee when he is injured, or to his eligible survivors or legal representatives if he is killed, by the negligence or wrong of any other person or persons in the same employ ...” An employee, for purposes of the LHWCA, according to Defendant, includes a borrowed employee, which Defendants contends Plaintiff was of Shell during his time on the PERDIDO.
B. Plaintiff Seals’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Seals argues that even if Shell is deemed to be his borrowing employer pursuant to the LHWCA — something Seals disputes — he is still entitled to recover against Shell for vessel negligence. Seals quotes from the Supreme Court case of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation v. Pfeifer,
*895 The first sentence of Section [90]5(b) authorizes a longshoreman whose injury is caused by negligence of a vessel to bring a separate action against the vessel as a third Party ... The second sentence of Section [90]5(b) makes it clear that such a separate action is authorized against the vessel even when there is no independent stevedore and the longshoreman is employed directly by the vessel owner.
According to Seals, Shell committed “vessel negligence” by breaching several duties owed to personnel. First, Seals asserts that Shell violated the so-called “Turnover Duty” it owed to Seals. The “Turnover Duty” requires a vessel owner to exercise reasonable care “to turn over a vessel in such condition that an expert and experienced longshoreman, by the exercise of reasonable care, can carry on its operations with reasonable safety to person and property.”
Second, Seals asserts that Shell violated the so-called “Active Control Duty,” which requires that the shipowner exercise reasonable care to prevent injuries to longshoremen in areas that remain under the shipowner’s control, although the shipowner is ordinarily deemed entitled to rely upon the longshoreman to discharge his duties in a “workmanlike manner.”
Finally, Seals contends that Shell violated a vessel owner’s duty “to intervene in longshoremen operations if the shipowner becomes aware of a dangerous condition and the longshoreman’s continued operations are so obviously improvident as to present a known, unreasonable risk of harm to the longshoreman.”
Seals argues, first, that he can sue Shell for vessel negligence even if his OCSLA claims are barred because Shell was his borrowing employer. For this proposition, Seals re-quotes the above cited passage from Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation v. Pfeifer,
Second, Seals argues that there is a disputed issue of material fact surrounding whether Seals was the borrowed employee of Shell. If Seals was not an employee or borrowed employee of Shell, then the provisions of the LHWCA barring Seal from bringing suit against Shell would not apply. Seals maintains that he “complained about his placement as a platform mechanic and did not voluntarily ‘acquiesce’ in his new work.”
D. Defendant Shell’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment
Defendant Shell argues that “Plaintiff cannot bring an action against Shell under § 905 of the LHWCA” because “[Plaintiff’s claims against Shell are in its capacity as platform owner,” and not a vessel owner.
Furthermore, Defendant argues that “[e]ven if the Court finds that plaintiff has a cause of action against Shell under the LHWCA, Shell is not liable to plaintiff under § 905(b)” because there was no breach of any of the three duties of a vessel owner — the “Turnover Duty,” the “Active Control Duty,” and the “Duty to Intervene” — laid out by the Supreme Court in Scindia Steam Navigation Company v. De Los Santos.
It cannot be argued that Shell had actual knowledge of any hazardous condition that would cause plaintiff to let his foot lose its connection with the ladder because plaintiff never advised his supervisor or complained to Shell that he was having any difficulty keeping his feet on the ladder while connecting or disconnecting the pendent. Shell, therefore, had no duty to intervene.40
E. Defendant Shell’s Response in Opposition to Plaintiff Seals’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Defendant Shell reiterates its arguments from its Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment that Plaintiff cannot bring suit under LHWCA § 905(b) because “[Pjlaintiffs claims against Shell are in its capacity as platform owner,” and not vessel owner.
F. Defendant Shells’s Reply to Plaintiff Seals’s Response to Defendant Shell’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Shell argues that it is entitled to summary judgment because Plaintiffs claims are barred under the LHWCA by virtue of Plaintiff having been Shell’s borrowed employee. Citing to Ruiz v. Shell Oil Company,
Moreover, Defendant asserts that Plaintiff acquiesced in his position — one of the nine factors — because “he never complained about performing the inspection of the fast rescue craft ... nor refused to do so when directed by Shell.”
G.Defendant Shell’s Supplemental Memorandum in Opposition to Plaintiff Seals’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Shell reiterates its position that Plaintiff cannot assert a claim of vessel negligence
Moreover, Shell maintains that a claim for vessel negligence also requires that the activity involved be a traditional maritime activity and that the incident “caused a potentially disruptive impact on maritime commerce.”
Finally, Defendant reiterates its argument that Plaintiff is suing Shell in its capacity as platform owner and not vessel owner, thereby barring Plaintiffs claims for vessel negligence.
H. Plaintiff Seals’s Supplement Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment
Plaintiff Seals argues that Shell “misconstrues” his allegations in his complaint.
For support for his argument, Plaintiff cites to Bonnette v. Shell Offshore, Inc.,
There is also no doubt that the maritime law is concerned with the ability of seamen to escape their ships in emergencies .... The use of lifeboats and the execution of lifeboat and man-overboard drills are an essential part of maritime activity....61
Additionally, Plaintiff argues that the Supreme Court in Stewart v. Dutra Construction Co.
Instead, the “in navigation” requirement is an element of the vessel status of a watercraft. It is relevant to whether the craft is “used, or capable of being used” for maritime transportation.... The question remains in all cases whether the watercraft’s use “as a means of transportation on water” is a practical possibility or merely a theoretical one.67
Plaintiff next argues that his injuries were potentially disruptive to maritime commerce. He quotes the Fifth Circuit case of Coats v. Penrod Drilling Corp.,
Finally, Plaintiff argues that maritime jurisdiction begins when a maritime worker boards a platform’s lifeboat. Plaintiff returns to Bonnette for this proposition. He quotes two passages from Bonnette. The first reads, “[T]his Court draws the line between OCSLA and maritime jurisdiction at the point where the platform ends and the escape capsule begins.”
I. Defendant Shell’s Supplemental Memorandum in Support of Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment
Shell argues that in Riley v. Alexander/Ryan Marine Services Company,
III. Law and Analysis
A. Standard on Motion for Summary Judgment
Summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings, the discovery, and any affidavits show that “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the mov-ant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
B. Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) was enacted “to define a body of law applicable to the seabed, the subsoil, and the fixed structures ... on the outer Continental Shelf.”
*901 With respect to disability or death of an employee resulting from any injury occurring as the result of 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 compensation shall be payable under the provisions of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.... For the purposes of the extension of the provisions of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act ... under this section&emdash; (1) the term “employee” does not include a master or member of a crew of any vessel, or an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof or of any State or foreign government, or of any political subdivision thereof;
The LHWCA states, in pertinent parts:
The right to compensation or benefits under this Act shall be the exclusive remedy to an employee when he is injured, or to his eligible survivors or legal representatives if he is killed, by the negligence or wrong of any other person or persons in the same employ: Provided, that this provision shall not affect the liability of a person other than an officer or employee of the employer.
Thus, Section 1333(b) of OCSLA makes the LHWCA an injured employee’s exclusive remedy against an employer for injuries occurring on a fixed platform on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Significantly, the LHWCA provides that the LHWCA “shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee.
Borrowed employee status is an issue of law.
1. Who has control over the employee and the work he is performing, beyond mere suggestions of details or cooperation?
2. Whose work is being performed?
3. Was there an agreement, understanding, or meeting of the minds between the original and the borrowing employer?
4. Did the employee acquiesce in the new work situation?
5. Did the original employer terminate his relationship with the employee?
6. Who furnished tools and place for performance?
*902 7. Was the new employment over a considerable length of time?
8. Who has the right to discharge the employee?
9. Who had the obligation to pay the employee?85
Neither control nor any other single factor is decisive, and no fixed test is used to determine the existence of a borrowed employee-employer relationship for the purposes of the LHWCA.
C. Negligence Under General Maritime Law
A claim for negligence under general maritime law requires the plaintiff to show that (1) the tort occurred on navigable water or that the injury on land was caused by a vessel on navigable water and (2) the incident had a “potentially disruptive effect on maritime commerce” and that “the activity giving rise to the incident has a substantial relationship to traditional maritime activity.”
Under Scindia Steam Navigation Co. v. De Los Santos,
Ordinary care under the circumstances to have the ship and its equipment in such a condition that any expert and experienced stevedore will be able by the exercise of reasonable care to carry out its cargo operations with reasonable safety to persons and property, and to warn the stevedore of hazards on the ship or with respect to his equipment that are known to the vessel or should be known in the exercise of reasonable care, that would likely be encountered by the stevedore in the course of his cargo operations and that are not known by the stevedore and would not be obvious to or anticipated by him if reasonably competent in the performance of his work.91
Thus, there are three succinct duties owed to longshoremen: (1) the “Turnover Duty,” (2) the “Active-Control Duty,” and (3) the “Duty to Intervene.”
1. The Turnover Duty
Before operations begin, the shipowner must exercise “ordinary care
2. The Active-Control Duty
Once the work begins, the shipowner has no general duty to supervise, inspect, or monitor operations for dangerous conditions that develop during the process, unless required to do so by contract, positive law, or custom.
The shipowner, within limits, is entitled to rely on the stevedore, and owes no duty to the longshoreman to inspect or supervise the cargo operations.The shipowner can only be liable if it “actively” involves itself in the operations and negligently injures [the employee] or ... fail[s] to exercise due care to avoid exposing [the employee] to harm from hazards ... encountered] in areas, or from equipment, under the active control of the vessel during the [repair] operation.”98
This is known as the duty to protect against hazards arising in areas or equipment under the vessel’s active control. In line with the Supreme Court’s treatment of the Turnover Duty, it is well established that, under the Active-Control Duty, the responsibility of a vessel owner to warn of hidden dangers is narrow and does not include dangers, which are open and obvious, or something that a reasonably competent stevedore should anticipate encountering.
3. The Duty to Intervene
The shipowner is entitled to rely on the stevedore’s judgment only until the shipowner becomes aware of a hazard on the ship that the stevedore is unreasonably failing to protect the longshoreman against, at which time it has a duty to intervene and remedy the hazard. Although the shipowner is deemed to know about hazards existing before the work begins, it must have actual knowledge of the hazard, which developed during the operations. Vessel owners are subject to the duty only when they have actual knowledge of both a hazard on a ship or with its equipment and a stevedore’s improvident decision to proceed despite the unsafe condition.
D. Whether Summary Judgment Should Be Granted on the Issue of Borrowed Employee Status
The question of whether a maritime worker is a borrowed employee is a
Shell argues that all nine factors weigh in favor of finding that Plaintiff was a borrowed employee, or alternatively, that even conceding that the question of acquiescence is disputed, that the other eight factors weigh so strongly in finding that Plaintiff was a borrowed employee that summary judgment should be granted. In particular, Defendant emphasizes that the question of control is the most important factor in determining whether a worker was a borrowed employee and it is undisputed that Shell exercised control over Seals. Plaintiff, in contrast, contends that the disputed material fact of whether he acquiesced in his employment situation precludes summary judgment.
While the level of control exercised over a worker is an important factor in determining whether a worker was a borrowed employee, this factor is not dispositive. In this case, there are disputed issues of material fact regarding at least two of the factors. Each of these factors has been given as much weight as the question of control by the Fifth Circuit.
The Fifth Circuit case of West v. Kerr-McGee Corporation
The Fifth Circuit in West denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The Fifth Circuit cited past precedent that “neither control nor any other single answer to the inquiries is decisive, and no fixed test is used to determine the existence of a borrowed-servant relationship.”
Because of these disputed issues of material fact, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision to grant the defendant’s motion for summary judgment despite the fact that it was undisputed that the corporate defendant had furnished the plaintiff with his tools and “had the power to control [the plaintiffs] actions during his five months on [the platform].”
Likewise, here, enough conflicting evidence has been brought forth to make summary judgment for Defendant Shell inappropriate on the question of whether Seals was Shell’s borrowed employee at the time of the accident. Of particular significance, as in West and as was the case in the Fifth Circuit case of Alday v. Patterson Truck Line, Inc.,
While this Court acknowledges that in the case of Gaudet v. Exxon Corp.,
Moreover, the dispute of other material facts precludes summary judgment here. Among others is the question of whether Seals acquiesced to his employment situation. This is a factor that the Fifth Circuit, at times, has found to be equal in importance to the factor of control.
E. Whether Summary Judgment Should Be Granted on the Issue of Vessel Negligence
Both Defendant and Plaintiff ask this Court to grant summary judgment in their favor on the question of Shell’s liability for vessel negligence. Defendant argues that the Fast Rescue Craft cannot serve as a predicate vessel for the purposes of vessel negligence because it was an “appurtenance” of the PERDIDO. The PERDIDO, Defendant argues, is not a vessel for the purposes of vessel negligence under the LHWCA because it is a stationary platform. Moreover, Defendant argues that because the Fast Rescue Craft was suspended above the Gulf of Mexico and was not in the Gulf of Mexico, it was not in navigable water, as the LHWCA also requires. Plaintiff, in contrast, argues that the Fast Rescue Craft does qualify as a vessel, that the Fast Rescue Craft was in navigable water by virtue of it being “moored” to the platform, and, finally, that Plaintiff was aboard the vessel at the time of his injuries.
The factual development in the Record is insufficient to grant either parties’ motion for summary judgment on the question of vessel negligence. While both parties concede that the Fast Rescue Craft was attached to the PERDIDO and suspended over the Gulf of Mexico, no further details are given about the Fast Rescue Craft, the Fast Rescue Craft’s position on the PERDIDO, or the Fast Rescue Craft’s relationship to the PERDIDO. Moreover, it is unclear from the Record exactly where Plaintiff Seals was at the time he fell from the ladder: whether he was on the PERDIDO platform or the Fast Rescue Craft. That fact and other related facts could be important in determining whether Seals’s claim for vessel negligence can be maintained.
On the present Record, the Court cannot definitively state if the Fast Rescue Craft should be considered a vessel, as Plaintiff claims, or an “appurtenance,” as Defendant claims. While Defendant suggests that the recently decided case of Riley v. Alexander/Ryan Marine Services
Finally, the Court notes that the question of a breach of a duty is a question of fact.
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that disputed material facts regarding the question of whether Seals was the borrowed employee of Shell preclude summary judgment. Additionally, the Court finds that disputed material facts regarding the location of the Fast Rescue Craft and the location of Seals at the time of the accident also preclude summary judgment. Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant Shell’s Motion for Summary Judgment,
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Reference
- Full Case Name
- Phillip SEALS v. SHELL OIL COMPANY
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published