Block Island Fishing, Inc. v. Rogers

844 F.3d 358, 2017 A.M.C. 110, 96 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 421, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23200, 2016 WL 7422699
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 23, 2016
Docket16-1267P
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 844 F.3d 358 (Block Island Fishing, Inc. v. Rogers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Block Island Fishing, Inc. v. Rogers, 844 F.3d 358, 2017 A.M.C. 110, 96 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 421, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23200, 2016 WL 7422699 (1st Cir. 2016).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

This case involves rulings of some significance to seamen and their employers in this circuit, as well as for summary judgment practice. Jamie Rogers, a seaman, was injurfed on October 3, 2013, on the vessel F/V HEDY BRENNA. Admiralty law entitles seamen who become injured during the course of their service at sea to recover “maintenance and cure” payments from their employers. Block Island Fishing, Inc., is the owner and operator of the fishing vessel. Having made some maintenance and cure payments to Rogers and believing it had overpaid, Block Island brought this suit against Rogers to dispute the duration and amount of maintenance and cure payments that it owed.

Block Island then moved for summary judgment on the ground that its maintenance and cure duties terminated on July 31, 2014. It supported its motion with record evidence showing that Rogers had returned to work as a commercial fisherman on another fishing vessel in July.

The district court rejected July 31 as the proper date of termination. But it went beyond the issue raised by Block Island’s summary judgment motion and found November 18, 2014 as the date on which Block Island’s obligations ended. That was the date on which a doctor, but not Rogers’ primary care physician, found that Rogers no longer needed follow-up care.

The district court also noted that injured seamen are generally entitled to maintenance and cure payments only in the amount of their actual living expenses, but it reserved for a jury to determine the exact sum that Block Island owed Rogers, along with other issues not resolved at the summary judgment stage. Relatedly, the district court held on summary judgment that Block Island had overpaid Rogers by calculating its maintenance and cure payments using figures that overestimated Rogers’ actual living expenses. It further ruled that Block Island could offset the sum of overpayment against any damages award that Rogers- might win at trial. We affirm in part and vacate,and remand, in part.

As to the exact date. on which Block Island’s maintenance and cure obligations ended, the district court erred by sua sponte replacing Block Island’s proposed date (July 31) with its own (November 18) without giving Rogers sufficient notice or opportunity to make Lis case against the new date. A summary judgment order is premature where the nonmoving party lacked “notice and a reasonable time to respond” to the' grounds on which that motion would be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(f).

We agree with the district court’s implicit recognition that injured seamen like Rogers can generally recover only reasonable expenses through maintenance and cure payments, and that it will be the factually, exceptional case, where the seaman’s actual expenses are not reasonable. Whether this case presents such exceptional circumstances is an issue for the jury. Finally, as a matter of first impression, we adopt the ruling of the Fifth Circuit in Boudreaux v. Transocean Deepwater, Inc., 721 F.3d 723 (5th Cir. 2013), and hold that Block Island may offset any overpayment against Rogers’ potential damages award, but may not sue for the sum in an independent action. See id. at 726-28.

*360 I.

“Because our review of a grant of summary judgment is de novo, we, like the district court, are obliged to review the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and to draw all reasonable inferences in the nonmoving party’s favor.” LeBlanc v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 6 F.3d 836, 841 (1st Cir. 1993). Although there are numerous dates at issue, the core of the dispute involves (1) when Block Island’s maintenance and cure obligations terminated, and (2) the amount, if any, of the maintenance and cure owed. Block Island takes the position that it overpaid Rogers based on an inflated rent amount that it believed Rogers to be paying when, in fact, Rogers had found less expensive housing. Rogers takes the position that special circumstances dictate that actual expenses are not the appropriate measure here.

A. Rogers’ Injury and His Various Residences from 2013 to 2014

In August 2013, Rogers and his family moved into a single-family home in Bristol, Rhode Island. He paid the first month’s rent of $1,600, which included utilities, but he cannot remember paying rent in subsequent months. In September 2013, Rogers joined the crew of the F/V HEDY BREN-NA, a commercial fishing vessel owned and operated by Block Island. For a fishing trip in which he' participated that month, Rogers was paid $2,892 in his catch share for the trip.

On October 3, 2013, during another fishing voyage, Rogers fell off the top bunk while sleeping and injured himself. Three days later, upon returning from the voyage, Rogers was diagnosed with a fractured rib and received medical treatment. In October 2013, Block Island paid Rogers $1,752.37 in catch share from the October 3 voyage and $475 in maintenance. On November 1, 2013, Block Island supplemented that amount with an additional $175 in maintenance and $1,857.78 in lost wages. The total sum paid from Block Island to Rogers over this period equaled $4,260.15.

In November 2013, Rogers and his family were evicted from the Bristol apartment and moved to a less expensive apartment in Fall River, Massachusetts. He paid $625 in monthly rent, excluding utilities, for the new Fall River apartment. On November 4, 2013, Rogers’ treating physician, Dr. Christian Campos, gave him a “fit for duty” slip and cleared him to return to work as a fisherman “without restrictions.”

Rogers’ health worsened in December, however, when he was diagnosed with pneumonia and was hospitalized for three weeks. Rogers attributes the pneumonia to his rib injury. Block Island learned about Rogers’ condition and hospitalization on December 19,2013.

On February 20, 2014, Dr. Campos reported that Rogers’ condition was improving and that Rogers could “increase his level of physical activity as tolerated without restrictions” while staying on pain medication. On March 17, 2014, Dr. Campos completed another examination and once again advised Rogers to continue to “increase his level of physical activity as tolerated without restrictions.”

In March 2014, Rogers moved to Sparta, Tennessee, where he lived with his brother. Rogers paid his brother $800 per month as rent. Finally, in May or June 2014, Rogers purchased a 38-foot boat for $2,500 and lived on that boat before returning to Fall River in June.

On June 19, 2014, Rogers’ primary care physician, Dr. Melanie Cardoza, examined Rogers for pain in his lower back and left leg. During this examination, Rogers told the doctor that he had returned from a *361 fishing trip the previous day and that he was planning to embark on another fishing trip the next day. The conversation demonstrated that Rogers had been working as a fisherman in June. Dr. Cardoza’s examination of Rogers’ chest and lungs revealed “normal excursion with symmetric chest walls and quiet, even and easy respiratory effort with no use of accessory muscles.”

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844 F.3d 358, 2017 A.M.C. 110, 96 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 421, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23200, 2016 WL 7422699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/block-island-fishing-inc-v-rogers-ca1-2016.