Gulf Coast Personal Injury Law Update

In Alexander v. Express Energy Services Operating1, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals once again addressed a critical issue facing businesses (and their insurers) whose operations have maritime connections: When is an employee considered a seaman?

The underlying case involved Michael Alexander, a lead hand/operator in Express Energy Services Operating, L.P.'s plug and abandonment department, which specialized in plugging decommissioned oil wells on various platforms off the coast of Louisiana for Express's customers. Mr. Alexander's duties included ensuring that everything was set up and running properly on the deck of the platform so that the plugging operation was successful.

At the time of the incident at issue in the lawsuit, Mr. Alexander was working on a plug and abandonment project on a platform owned by Apache Corporation that had four wells on it. A liftboat owned by Aries Marine Corporation was positioned next to the Apache platform, with a catwalk connecting the vessel to the platform. (A liftboat is a self-propelled, self-elevating vessel with a relatively large open deck capable of carrying equipment and supplies, that has the capability of rapidly raising its hull clear of the water on its own legs so as to provide a stable platform from which maintenance and construction work may be conducted. They are commonly used in Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations.) The liftboat had a crane that was being operated by an Aries employee for the benefit of the plug and abandonment crew. Other equipment, including wireline equipment, was located on the platform. Mr. Alexander, who along with other workers had set up the equipment on the platform before work began, was on the platform, not the liftboat, when the work was underway. As he was working on the platform, a wireline from the liftboat's crane snapped, causing a plug/tool combination suspended approximately a foot above the platform's deck to fall and roll onto Mr. Alexander's foot.

Mr. Alexander subsequently filed a lawsuit in Louisiana federal court against Express, his employer, and other companies, alleging that he was a seaman and asserting claims for negligence under the Jones Act and general maritime law, as well as claims for unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure.2 Express, the employer, subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment challenging Alexander's seaman status, arguing that he was a platform-based worker who failed to satisfy either prong of the seaman...