 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Coutee v. Global Marine Drilling Co.2/16/2005
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND RENDERED.
In this Jones Act negligence case, plaintiff, Delton Coutee, appeals the judgment of the trial court in favor of defendant, Global Marine Drilling Company (Global Marine). The trial court concluded that Mr. Coutee failed to prove that the Global Marine vessel from which he fell was unreasonably unsafe for its intended purposes under the Jones Act. The trial court also found that Mr. Coutee was entitled to a cure award of $1,885.11, but that Global Marine paid Mr. Coutee $17,633.00 in settlement advances which offset the cure award; thus, Mr. Coutee is not entitled to attorney fees in conjunction with his cure award.
For the following reasons, we reverse the judgment of the trial court with respect to its finding that failure to provide hand/guard rails was not negligence per se and finding that Global Marine was not callous and recalcitrant, arbitrary and capricious, or willful, callous, and persistent when it refused to pay Mr. Coutee the amount of cure benefits to which he was entitled. We award $10,000.00 in attorney fees for Global Marine's refusal. We further reverse the judgment of the trial court and find that Mr. Coutee sustained a back injury as a result of Global Marine's negligence per se and render judgment awarding $100,000.00 in general damages, $60,000.00 for past lost earnings, and $300,000.00 for future loss of earnings. We affirm the judgment with respect to its finding that the SALA block was not defective and that Mr. Coutee was entitled to additional cure benefits.
I. ISSUES
We shall consider whether:
(1) the trial judge erred in finding that Global Marine's failure to provide guardrails on the platform erected around the Blowout Preventer Stack (BPS), a regulatory safety violation, was excused due to storage space constraints and his use of a safety harness;
(2) the trial judge committed legal error by failing to strike the testimony of Dr. Rayland K. Beurlot; and,
(3) the trial court's refusal to award compensatory damages and attorney fees was error.
II. FACTS
Mr. Coutee filed suit against Global Marine under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. ยง 688. There is no dispute that Mr. Coutee fell off of the Blowout Preventer (BOP) stack on January 7, 2001, while working as a seaman on the drilling vessel Glomar Adriatic II (Glomar) on his third day of an eleven-day work period. The BOP stack is located underneath the drill floor and is used to control well pressure while drilling.
The BOP stack consists of several hydraulically-powered valves that are stacked one on top of the other. Customarily, crews working on the BOP stack use riding belts to climb the stack. When Mr. Coutee fell from the BOP stack, he was in the process of "nippling down" (removing) the BOP stack lubricator. The lubricator is attached to the BOP stack by a flange, or the "hydrill," by four large nuts and bolts. The hydrill is just above the lubricator. The lubricator equipment is also used to control pressure during wireline operations. It is common practice to change out the lubricator's bell nipple during drilling, completion, and wire line operations.
In an effort to assist its employees in the removal of the equipment located directly above the hydrill, Global attached a half-moon shaped platform that measured four feet long and one-and-a-half feet at its widest point. Use of the platform began in the 1990s. The platform was not permanently attached to the hydrill, but was held there by steel strapping. The form of attachment used made it possible to remove the platform when not in use. Don Jeffery Bass, who was employed by Global M
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Louisiana Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|