Boating Accident Lawyer South Texas Maritime Accidents

In Texas every year, increased maritime activity on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas leads to boating and maritime accidents involving tugboats, barges, offshore rigs, crew boats, recreational speedboats, yachts or other vessels. Collisions, boat malfunctions, and inexperienced or impaired operators can contribute to serious injuries, even death. If you or someone you know has suffered a severe injury while working off shore or boating recreationally, contact our boating accident lawyers at O'Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath can help evaluate your case and advise you of your options.

What is the Jones Act?

The Jones Act was written and enacted by the United States Congress to provide legal protection to persons who are crew members of a ship or vessel. The Jones Act applies to inland river workers and offshore crew members who work on jack-ups, semi-submersibles, barges, drill ships, tugs and towboats, crew boats, dredges, floating cranes, tankers, cargo ships, fishing vessels, shrimp boats, trawlers, chemical ships, research vessels, construction barges, diving vessels, cruise ships, recreational boats, and other floating or movable vessels.

An employer owes a seaman a higher duty of care under the Jones Act than an ordinary negligence case, and the employer can be liable if its breach of that duty caused a seaman’s injury. In order for a worker to recover under the Jones Act, a worker must prove some negligence or fault on the part of the vessel's owners, operators, officers, and/or fellow employees or by reason of any defect in the vessel, its gear, tackle, or equipment. The Jones Act also provides an injured seaman a remedy against his or her employers for injuries arising from negligent acts of co-workers during the course of employment on a ship or vessel.

A Jones Act claim must generally be brought within three years of the injury. An injured worker's maritime claim under the Jones Act can also raise claims against a vessel's owner that a dangerous condition existed on the vessel that made the vessel unseaworthy.

What is a seaman?

In order to qualify for a claim under the Jones Act, you must be a seaman. Generally, a seaman must be a member of the crew of a vessel. Specifically, in order to qualify as a seaman:

1. the person must have an employment connection to the vessel that is substantial both in terms of duration and nature; and
2. the person's employment must contribute to the work of the vessel;
3. the vessel must be engaged as an instrument of commerce and transportation on navigable waters.

For example, people who serve on freighters, tugboats, crew boats, tankers, jack-up rigs, semi-submersibles, supply boats, lay barges, barges, fishing boats, shrimp boats and crew boats who are members of the crew are considered to be seamen under the Jones Act. Longshoremen, pilots, and those who work on fixed platforms are not normally classified as seamen, but may have other maritime remedies available to them.

What do the terms maintenance and cure mean?

If someone who qualifies as a seaman is injured on a vessel, regardless of the fault of the vessel or its operators, he is entitled to "maintenance" and "cure". Maintenance is designed to provide the ill or injured seaman with compensation sufficient to pay for care due to the injury, including lodging expenses. The amount of maintenance to which the seaman is entitled is a factual question, but is often said to be in replacement of the cost to the employer of the food and lodging of the seaman while he was aboard a vessel. Maintenance rates generally range from $15 to $40 per day.

Cure is the obligation of the employer of a seaman to provide medical care, prescription drugs, nursing services, hospitalization and rehabilitation until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement. A seaman has the right to select his own physicians and method of treatment. Maximum medical improvement means that the seaman's condition will not improve any further or he is permanently disabled. When a seaman reaches maximum medical improvement, the vessel owner's obligation to pay maintenance and cure ceases, regardless of whether the seaman can return to work or not.

What kinds of specific damages are covered under the Jones Act?

An injured worker under the Jones Act may recover the following legal damages:

• Wages lost from the time of the injury to the time of trial;
• Wage loss in the future (often due to loss of earning capacity);
• Medical expenses in the past;
• Medical expenses in the future;
• Pain and suffering in the past and future;
• Mental anguish in the past and future; and
• Physical disfigurement.

If an injury causes the death of a seaman, the surviving widow or husband and children become the beneficiaries under the Jones Act. If the worker does not have a spouse or children, then the beneficiaries include the employee's parents. A personal representative such as an executor is entitled to bring an action that the worker (had he lived) would have possessed against his employer. The worker's cause of action against the employer does not die with the worker. In a death cases, damages go to the seaman's survivors.

How is a vessel’s unseaworthiness determined?

An unseaworthiness claim is filed against a vessel's owner, who is sometimes also the seaman's employer. A vessel owner owes his seaman a strict and absolute duty to provide a seaworthy vessel. A seaworthy vessel should be equipped with appropriate safety gear and equipment, safe recreation facilities, and a competent crew. The warranty of seaworthiness extends to all parts of the vessel, including the hull, appliances, gear and equipment, even the vessel's crew.