Armand v. Terral River Service, Inc.

158 So. 3d 61, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 610, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2920, 2014 WL 6911655
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 10, 2014
DocketNo. 14-610
StatusPublished

This text of 158 So. 3d 61 (Armand v. Terral River Service, 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
Armand v. Terral River Service, Inc., 158 So. 3d 61, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 610, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2920, 2014 WL 6911655 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

CONERY, Judge.

| tAlbert Ross Armand (Mr. Armand) appeals the trial court’s ruling granting a motion for summary judgment in favor of his former employer Terral River Service Inc. (Terral). The trial court found that the work platform at issue did not constitute a “vessel” and, thus, Mr. Armand did not qualify as a seaman under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 30104. Mr. Armand’s Jones Act case was dismissed with prejudice and at his cost. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Mr. Armand worked for Terral for approximately eight months from June 2012 to February 2013. He was injured on the job and suffered the partial amputation of his right thumb. Mr. Armand had been hired by Terral as an operator/deck hand. His work duties included activities both on the shore and “on water.” His on-shore duties included loading fertilizer onto trucks for delivery from Terral’s warehouse facility, located just below Alexandria, Louisiana. He also worked on land for approximately three months in the Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, area for Terral, using an excavator to move sand to enlarge the port facility. In his deposition, Mr. Armand estimated that approximately thirty to forty percent of his work time was spent “on the shore.”

Mr. Armand’s “on water” duties were primarily on a floating, fixed work platform located on the Red River at the Terral facility. The work platform was tied securely with cables to a dolphin, a marine structure moored to the river bottom downstream of the work platform. The work platform was also attached to the river bottom by two sets of three pipes, bound together, and attached at the bow and the stern of the work platform with a system of chains and cables. The pipes l2holding the work platform were driven deep into the river bottom. The platform had no navigational function and was fixed in place.

A “track hoe,” or excavator, was located on the work platform and was used for offloading fertilizer, rocks, and sand at Terral’s location from various transport barges that were moved adjacent to the work platform for that purpose. A hopper for a conveyor system was securely attached to the work platform and the right descending bank of the river and was used to transport cargo from the excavator on the work platform to shore-based storage or transport facilities. In addition, there was also a heavy catwalk attached to the work platform and the river bank, which allowed the work platform to rise and fall with the river level.1 Mr. Armand estimated in his deposition testimony that approximately sixty to seventy percent of his working time was spent on .the work platform.2

During his deposition, Mr. Armand and counsel for Terral discussed the procedure [63]*63for unloading a transport barge when it arrived at the Terral work platform. The barges to be unloaded typically carried fertilizer, sand, and rocks. A “fleet boat”3 or “line boat”4 would usually bring two transport barges at a time and push the first barge next to the track hoe on the work platform. The track hoe would then reach out and hold the barge in place while Mr. Armand, or whoever was working, tied the transport barge to the work platform.

|sIf the transport barge was carrying fertilizer, the fertilizer lids would be removed three at a time and, using the excavator, the fertilizer would then be unloaded. The transport barges carrying rocks and sand were open barges with no lids. The barges would then be systematically unloaded. Once unloaded, the barges would be picked up by a fleet boat or line boat. Deck hands on the fleet or line tow boats were responsible for all mooring operations for the transport barges.

Mr. Armand’s deposition testimony confirms that during his employment, he never got on a Terral boat or was attached to a Terral vessel of any kind. The work done for Terral by Mr. Armand was accomplished either on the work platform, on shore, or occasionally, as in this case, on the transport barges removing or replacing the fertilizer lids.5 He further confirmed that he did not know who owned the tow boats pushing the barges, other than the occasional Terral tow, and he had no involvement in moving the products on the river, only helping the excavator operator unload the materials from the barge onto the shore. Mr. Armand further confirmed in his deposition testimony that he never put “navigation lights on a barge” or “secured a barge to a tow boat.” He explained that the tow boats had their own deck hands who would handle the cables and winches on the tow boats to tie down the barge for movement up and down the river.

In February 2013, Mr. Armand and Willard Guillory, the excavator operator, were replacing hopper lids on a fertilizer barge after the fertilizer had been offloaded. Mr. Armand testified that the hopper lid became twisted, and when he attempted to move it, the lid fell, causing a partial amputation of his right thumb. 14Mr. Armand required two surgeries for his thumb injury and timely began receiving benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA). However, in May 2013, Mr. Armand filed suit against Terral seeking money damages as a Jones Act seaman. Terral then discontinued Mr. Armand’s Longshore benefits, and, as he had not reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI), began paying Mr. Armand maintenance and cure under the provisions of the Jones Act while his damage claim was pending.

On December 6, 2013, Terral filed a motion for summary judgment claiming that Mr. Armand was not a Jones Act seaman. Terral argued that Mr. Armand would be unable to meet his burden at trial to prove that the work platform at the Terral facility was a “vessel in navigation.” On February 24, 2014, the trial court heard the motion and granted summary judgment in favor of Terral, finding, “I am not convinced that this work platform constitutes a vessel. And I don’t see anything [64]*64that raises a material issue of fact regarding that.” The trial court signed a judgment on March 24, 2014, dismissing Mr. Armand’s Jones Act claim with prejudice and assessing costs to him. Mr. Armand now timely appeals the trial court’s ruling.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR

Mr. Armand asserts the following assignment of error on appeal, “The lower Court erroneously applied Louisiana Civil Code of Procedure article 966 in light of the contradictory testimony and /or evidence.”

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Standard of Review

Summary judgments are reviewed de novo, applying the same standard to the matter as that applied by the trial court. Smith v. Our Lady of the Lake Hosp., Inc., 93-2512 (La.7/5/94), 639 So.2d 730. Summary judgment is favored by law and provides a vehicle by which the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of an action may be achieved. La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(A)(2). The trial court is required to render summary judgment “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions, together with the affidavits, if any, admitted for purposes of the motion for summary judgment, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(B)(2). In this case, all documentation supporting and opposing Terral’s motion for summary judgment was properly admitted into evidence at the hearing held on February 24, 2014.

In 1997, the legislature enacted La.Code Civ.P. art.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 So. 3d 61, 14 La.App. 3 Cir. 610, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2920, 2014 WL 6911655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armand-v-terral-river-service-inc-lactapp-2014.