Apperson v. Universal Services, Inc.

153 So. 2d 81
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 3, 1963
Docket5832
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 153 So. 2d 81 (Apperson v. Universal Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Apperson v. Universal Services, Inc., 153 So. 2d 81 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

153 So.2d 81 (1963)

David P. APPERSON
v.
UNIVERSAL SERVICES, INC. and Travelers Insurance Company.

No. 5832.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 3, 1963.

Gamble & Gamble, by Harry P. Gamble, III, New Orleans, for appellant.

Aycock, Horne, Caldwell & Coleman, by John E. Coleman, Jr., Franklin, for appellees.

Before ELLIS, LOTTINGER, HERGET, LANDRY and REID, JJ.

HERGET, Judge.

Plaintiff, David P. Apperson, appealed from a judgment dismissing his suit wherein the Trial Court sustained a motion for summary judgment filed on behalf of defendants, Universal Services, Incorporated and Travelers Insurance Company.

The Trial Court in its written reasons for judgment scholarly presents the issues, its views and conclusions as follows:

"The plaintiff, David P. Apperson, instituted this action for workmen's compensation against his employer, Universal Services, Inc., and his employer's workmen's compensation insurer, Travelers Insurance Company, to recover the compensation provided by our law for total and permanent disability.
"The defendants filed an exception of no cause of action and a motion for summary judgment. Both are based on the contention that the plaintiff's occupation was that of a seaman at the time of his alleged injury and that our State's Workmen's Compensation laws are inapplicable to support his action because the federal Jones Act provides the exclusive remedy.

"In Article II of his petition plaintiff alleged that:

*82 "`Plaintiff was employed by defendant as a chef steward, and in his capacity, defendant sent plaintiff to Zapata Offshore Company's rig "Vinegarron" in Galveston Bay on January 27, 1961, where plaintiff worked until February 10, 1961; that before leaving the rig, plaintiff was instructed by defendant to drive to defendant's home office in Morgan City, Louisiana, to drop off rig reports and laundry, which plaintiff did, and while in Morgan City, said plaintiff was invited to dine with plaintiff's supervisors, after which he departed from Morgan City, at 11:00 O'Clock P.M. on the same day, that is, February 10, 1961; that after leaving Morgan City and upon reaching a point one mile east of Bayou Boeuf, Assumption Parish, on U. S. Highway 90, Melvin Gaspard, Jr., drove his automobile into the front of plaintiff's 1961 Thunderbird, causing plaintiff severe and serious permanent personal injury.'
"The defendants submitted the affidavits of two officials of Universal Services, Inc. setting forth that plaintiff was employed as a Chef Steward on the offshore rig `Vinegaron' in Galveston Bay, Texas, and that his duties consisted generally in operating the kitchen and living quarters of the rig.
"The arguments submitted by the litigants confine the dispute solely to the nature of plaintiff's employment; they do not take into consideration the nature of the specific mission that plaintiff alleges he was on at the time of his alleged injury as affecting the issue. Likewise, they apparently assume that the rig in question is of the usual type used in offshore explorations for the recovery of minerals and that it was so engaged at the time of plaintiff's employment, in navigable waters of the United States.
"The defendants have cited a number of decisions of the Federal and our own State's courts holding that the remedies provided for in the Jones Act offer the exclusive remedy available to seamen for injuries received in the course of their employment. These remedies exclude proceedings under the States' Workmen's Compensation laws.
"The plaintiff has cited the case of Beadle vs. Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Co., [La.App.] 87 So.2d 339, and contends that his claim falls within the `twilight zone' doctrine recognized and applied in that case. This is so, he points out, because he was nowhere near the situs of his employment when he received his injuries, nor was he upon navigable waters. He claims that being on land is an important factor in determining the nature of his action.
"This argument does not appear to carry much weight because the many decisions on the point turn upon the nature of the claimant's employment rather than the place where he was hurt. A seaman's claim under the Jones Act is not barred because he received his injuries on land if his duties called him there.
"In the Offshore Company vs. Robison case, [5 Cir.] 266 F.2d 769, the Court illustrated with citations the loose definition of a seaman. Substantially, it concluded that one who regularly works in the furtherance of the business of a vessel is a seaman, and that an object that floats is a vessel, whether it is engaged in navigation, or not. The opinion said in part:
"`(3) There are common denominators in Gianfala, Bassett, Summerlin, Wilkes and Gahagan decisions. (1) The claimants are not ordinarily thought of as "seamen" aboard "primarily in aid of navigation", although *83 they may serve the vessel in the sense that the work they perform fits in with the function the vessel serves. Gianfala was a member of a drilling crew on a submersible barge, Summerlin a fireman on a derrick, Wilkes a common laborer on a dredge, Gahagan a deckhand on a dredge. They had absolutely nothing to do with navigation, as such, nothing to do with the operations or welfare of a vessel in the sense that a vessel is a means of transport by water, and were not members of a ship's company in the sense that ship's cook or carpenter are necessary or appropriate members of a ship's complement. But in the light of the function or mission of the special structure to which they were attached, they served in a capacity that contributed to the accomplishment of its mission in the same way that a surgeon serves as a member of the crew of a floating hospital. The Bassett decision is the only one of the four cited in which there was judicial sanction of the requirement that the Jones Act seaman must be aboard "primarily in aid of navigation", and in that case the question at issue was the sufficiency of the evidence to justify a holding under the Longshoremen's Act. (2) The "vessels" were not conventional vessels but special-purpose structures that in one case was on the bottom of the sea. In other words, under the Jones Act a vessel may mean something more than a means of transport on water.
"`Senko v. La Crosse Dredging Corp., 1957, 352 U.S. 370, 77 S.Ct. 415, 1 L.Ed.2d 404, rehearing denied 353 U.S. 931, 77 S.Ct. 716, 1 L.Ed.2d 724 resolved some of the doubts the per curiam opinion in Gianfala raised. Senko was a handyman on a dredge. The dredge was anchored to shore and was used as a stationary earth-removing machine. He had applied to his union (Common Laborer's Union) for a job. The foreman of a construction gang assigned him to a job as "deckhand" or "laborer" on the dredge. Senko worked an eight hour shift, ran errands on shore, was paid by the hour, lived at home, drove back and forth each day, and brought his own meals to work. He had no duties connected with moving the dredge. Senko was injured ashore while placing a signal lantern from the dredge in a shack on land. He filed suit under the Jones Act in an Illinois state court. The jury returned a verdict in his favor, but it was set aside on appeal for lack of evidence to support a finding that he was a member of the crew.

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Bluebook (online)
153 So. 2d 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/apperson-v-universal-services-inc-lactapp-1963.