Pate v. Standard Dredging Corp.

193 F.2d 498
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 6, 1952
Docket13405
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 193 F.2d 498 (Pate v. Standard Dredging Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pate v. Standard Dredging Corp., 193 F.2d 498 (5th Cir. 1952).

Opinion

BORAH, Circuit Judge.

This civil action at law to recover damages under the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, commonly called the Jones Act, and for maintenance, was commenced by appellant, John E. Pate, in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, 80th Judicial District, and was removed by appellee, Standard Dredging Company, to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on the ground of diversity of citizenship and requisite jurisdictional amount in controversy. A motion by appellant to remand the case to the state court was overruled. Thereafter, the case came on for trial and the court below made findings of fact and conclusions of law in favor of appellee and entered judgment accordingly. This appeal followed.

At the outset we are met with appellant’s contention that the suit was improperly removed to the federal District Court and that the court erred in refusing to remand it. Appellant argues that a seaman may choose his forum for litigation of a cause of action for negligence under the Jones Act and once lodged in the State court the suit may not be removed to the federal courts. Appellee, on the other hand, claims that the court below did not err in its refusal to remand the case to the state court and sets forth three grounds in support of its contention: (1) that there is no longer any statute prohibiting the removal of a case brought in the state courts under the Jones Act; (2) that a cause of action for damages based on unseaworthiness is separate and independent from a cause of action under the Jones Act and is removable; and *500 (3) that the cause of action for maintenance and cure affords a basis for removal in that it is-a separate and distinct cause of action which would be removable if sued upon alone and, therefore, the entire case could be removed.

Appellee’s first point, that there is no longer any statute prohibiting removal of a case brought in the State courts under the Jones Act, is not well taken. The Jones Act provides that any seaman suffering personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law against his employer with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply. The act thus incorporates by reference and makes applicable to seamen injured in the course of their employment all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the ■ common-law right or remedy in cases of injuries to railway employees. One such statute, the Federal Employer’s Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq. contained a provision, 45 U.S.C.A. § 56, that the jurisdiction of courts, of the United States in such actions should be concurrent with that of the courts of the several states and that no case arising under the Act and brought in any State court of competent jurisdiction should be removed to a federal court. This provision did not in and of itself constitute any modification or extension of a common-law right or remedy, yet it was a part of a statute which did modify a common-law right or remedy, and was naturally held to have been appropriated by the Jones Act along with the other provisions of the Federal Employer’s Liability Act. This statute, however, was not the only statute of the United States barring removal of actions brought under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act. Section 71 of old Title 28, United States Code, provided that no case arising under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act and brought in any State court of competent jurisdiction should be removable to any federal court. This provision likewise precluded removal of actions brought in State courts under the Jones Act.

It is true that by Section 18 of the Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 989, the Federal Employer’s Liability Act was amended by omitting from section 56 of the Act the provision above-mentioned relating to removal of actions. However, section 1445 (a) of new Title 28, which was also a part of the Act of June 25, 1948, re-enacted the aforementioned provision of section 71 of old Title 28 precluding the removal from State to federal courts of actions brought under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act. Therefore, new Title 28, United States Code, § 1445(a), now bars removal to the federal courts of any action brought under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act; and the pertinent provisions of the Jones Act, incorporating by reference all statutes of the United States modifying or extending a common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injuries to railway employees, is still in full force and effect. It follows that actions brought by seamen in the state courts under the Jones Act are not removable to the federal courts. This conclusion is supported by the adjudicated cases. Gutierrez v. Pacific Tankers, D.C., 81 F.Supp. 278; Greene v. United Fruit Co., D.C., 85 F.Supp. 81; Moltke v. Intercontinental Shipping Corporation, D.C., 86 F. Supp. 662, 663; Ducoff v. Cities Service Oil Company, D.C., Tex., 102 F.Supp. 423.

Appellee’s second point is that appellant’s suit in tort for damages is not based exclusively on the Jones Act but includes a cause of action for unseaworthiness as well. On the basis of this premise it is argued that the cause of action for unseaworthiness is separate and independent from that under the Jones Act; and that, therefore, regardless of what may be the present rule with respect to removal of cases based solely on the Jones Act, such rule cannot apply here and the entire case was properly removed to the District Court. We do not agree. By the general maritime law of the United States prior to the Jones Act, in cases where a seaman fell sick while in the service of the ship, the vessel and her owner were liable for maintenance and *501 cure and were liable also to an indemnity for injuries received by a seaman as a result of the unseaworthiness of the ship and her appliances; but the seaman could not recover indemnity for injuries sustained through the negligence of the master or any member of the crew. The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158, 23 S.Ct. 483, 47 L.Ed. 760; Pacific S.S. Co. v. Peterson, 278 U.S. 130, 49 S.Ct. 75, 73 L.Ed. 220; Smith v. Lykes Bros. Ripley S. S. Co., 5 Cir., 105 F.2d 604. The Jones Act, however, modified the prior maritime law of the United States by giving to seamen injured through negligence a right of action in personam against the employer. The Jones Act did not exclude the seaman’s admiralty right to maintenance and cure nor his resort to the maritime remedy for injury due to the unseaworthiness of the vessel but some of the courts have indicated by way of obiter dictum that an injured seaman must elect whether to found his action upon unseaworthiness under the maritime law or to bottom it upon negligence under the Jones Act. The more recent cases, however, held that such election of remedies is not required. McCarthy v. American Eastern Corporation, 3 Cir., 175 F.2d 724; Balado v. Lykes Bros. S.S. Co., 2 Cir., 179 F.2d 943.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Johnson v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd.
163 F. Supp. 3d 338 (E.D. Louisiana, 2016)
Bendlis v. NCL (Banamas), Ltd.
112 F. Supp. 3d 1339 (S.D. Florida, 2015)
Bartel ex rel. Estate of Bishop v. Alcoa Steamship Co.
64 F. Supp. 3d 843 (M.D. Louisiana, 2014)
Gregoire v. Enterprise Marine Services, LLC
38 F. Supp. 3d 749 (E.D. Louisiana, 2014)
Brooks v. Maersk Line, Ltd.
396 F. Supp. 2d 711 (E.D. Virginia, 2005)
Lewis v. C.J. Langenfelder & Son, Jr., Inc.
587 S.E.2d 697 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2003)
Lewis v. CJ LANGENFELDER & SON, JR.
587 S.E.2d 697 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2003)
Wamsley v. Tonomo Marine, Inc.
287 F. Supp. 2d 657 (S.D. West Virginia, 2003)
Iwag v. Geisel Compania Maritima, S.A.
882 F. Supp. 597 (S.D. Texas, 1995)
Talbot v. Saipem A.G.
835 F. Supp. 352 (S.D. Texas, 1993)
Gates Construction Corp. v. Koschak
792 F. Supp. 334 (S.D. New York, 1992)
Luhr Bros. Inc. v. Gagnard
765 F. Supp. 1264 (W.D. Louisiana, 1991)
Kinder v. Wisconsin Barge Line, Inc.
69 B.R. 11 (E.D. Missouri, 1986)
Alajoki v. Inland Steel Company
635 F. Supp. 398 (E.D. Michigan, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
193 F.2d 498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pate-v-standard-dredging-corp-ca5-1952.