Corella v. McCormick Shipping Corp.

101 So. 2d 903, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2751, 1958 A.M.C. 2266
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided March 27, 1958·No. No. 57-195·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

HORTON, Judge.

Appellant was the plaintiff and the appel-lee the defendant in the court below. Fernando Corella, a Cuban national, filed suit in the Circuit Court for Dade County, Florida, alleging that he was injured in foreign waters, near Jamaica, while in the employ of the appellee, McCormick Shipping Corporation, a Panamanian corporation. Corella was employed as a seaman on a vessel owned by the appellee, known as the S. S. Queen of Nassau. This vessel flew the flag of Panama and was also registered there. Corella signed his contract of employment in Miami, Florida. The contract provided for application of Panamanian law.

The complaint was brought under the Jones Act, Title 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, and consisted of three counts. Count one charges the appellee with negligence that proximately caused his injury. Count two charges the appellee with negligence in failing to provide proper medical care and treatment, which aggravated his injury. Count three sought compensation for maintenance and cure while incapacitated.

The court below granted summary judgment in favor of the appellee as to Count one, finding as a matter of law that the Jones Act was not applicable; directed a verdict in favor of the appellee as to Count two on the ground that the appellant failed to establish any actionable negligence; and directed a verdict in favor of the appellant as to liability on Count three, whereupon the jury returned a verdict of $11,374.60, and judgment on that verdict was duly entered. The appellant appeals from the adverse rulings of the court below as to Counts one and two. No appeal has been taken from the judgment rendered under Count three.

The appellant urges two points for reversal of the judgment entered below, i. e., (1) the court below erred in failing to apply the Jones Act under Count one, and (2) the court below erred in finding as a matter of law that there was no evidence of actionable negligence under Count two. We will consider the points in the order as posed.

For some time there existed considerable confusion as to the application of the Jones Act. This confusion was occasioned to some degree by the opening words of the act which made reference to “any seaman”. The courts had generally interpreted the words literally and had gone so far as to extend the remedies under the Jones Act to foreign seamen injured on the high seas while in the employ of a foreign vessel. Taylor v. Atlantic Maritime Co., 2 Cir., 179 F.2d 597, 600, and Atlantic Maritime Co. v. Rankin, 1951, 341 U.S. 915, 71 S.Ct. 736, 95 L.Ed. 1350. However, the Supreme Court of the United States, speaking through Justice Jackson, in Lauritzen v. Larsen, 1953, 345 U.S. 571, 73 S.Ct. 921, 933, 97 L.Ed. 1254, considered the following as essential elements in determining the applicability of the Jones Act:

(1) Place of the wrongful act;
(2) Law of the flag;
(3) Allegiance or domicile of the injured ;
[905] (4) Allegiance of the defendant shipowner ;
(5) Place of contract;
(6) Inaccessibility of foreign forum.; and
(7) The law of the forum.

The facts in Lauritzen v. Larsen, supra, are that Larsen, a Danish citizen, while temporarily in New York, joined the crew of the ship Randa, a ship of Danish flag and registry. He signed a contract of employment which provided for the application of Danish law. Larsen was injured aboard the vessel Randa while in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. The only apparent connection with this country was the signing of the contract of employment by Larsen in New York. The court refused to apply the Jones Act and in so doing said:

“This review of the connecting factors which either maritime law or our municipal law of conflicts regards as significant in determining the law applicable to a claim of actionable wrong shows an overwhelming preponderance in favor of Danish law. The parties are both Danish subjects, the events took place on a Danish ship, not within our territorial waters. Against these considerations is only the fact that the defendant was served here with process and that the plaintiff signed on in New York, where the defendant was engaged in our foreign commerce. * * * But we can find no justification for interpreting the Jones Act to intervene between foreigners and their own law because of acts on a foreign ship not in our waters.”

As in the Lauritzen case, the only factor apparent upon which application of the Jones Act could be had to the case at bar was the signing of the contract of employment in Miami, Florida. Accordingly, the court below was correct in holding that the Jones Act was inapplicable.

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Corella v. McCormick Shipping Corp., 101 So. 2d 903, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2751, 1958 A.M.C. 2266 (Fla. Ct. App. 1958).

101 So. 2d 903 (Corella v. McCormick Shipping Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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