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Diamond Offshore Management Co. v. Lelaguidry4/8/2005
CHIEF JUSTICE JEFFERSON did not participate in the decision.
In this wrongful death action under the Jones Act, the trial court rendered judgment on a verdict for the plaintiff, the widow of a deceased seaman killed ashore when he was thrown from the bed of a pickup in a one-vehicle accident. A divided court of appeals affirmed. Petitioner, the decedent's employer, complains that there is no evidence that at the time of the accident the decedent was "in the course of his employment", as required by the Act, but alternatively, even if there was some evidence to that effect, it was not conclusive, and the jury should therefore have been, but was not, asked to find whether the decedent and his co-employee, who was driving the pickup, were then in the course of their employment. We agree that the jury was not properly charged and therefore reverse and remand the case for a new trial.
Late one evening, at the end of their 12-hour shift, Craig Guidry and several of his fellow crew members left the Ocean Tower, a jack-up offshore rig docked for repairs in the Sabine Pass shipyard, and drove in two vehicles about five miles down the road to see the Ocean Confidence, a much larger rig also owned by their employer, Diamond Offshore Management Co. Diamond did not object to their leaving. The weather was too foggy for anyone to get a good look, so they went instead over to the Chicken Crossing, a nearby karaoke bar, arriving about midnight. The testimony admitted at trial is conflicting about whether they had anything alcoholic to drink. They all left about 2:00 a.m., when the bar closed, to return to their rig, since they were in the middle of a two- or three-week hitch during which they lived and worked on the rig. Although it was drizzling, Guidry decided to ride in the bed of the pickup driven by his co-worker, Sammy Martinez. On the way, Martinez was speeding and lost control, and Guidry was thrown from the truck. He died of his injuries days later. The trial court excluded evidence that Guidry's blood-alcohol content was about twice the level for legal intoxication in Texas.
Guidry's wife, Lela, sued Diamond on behalf of herself, their son, and Guidry's estate. Ten members of the jury found that the negligence of both Diamond and Guidry caused his injuries, allocated responsibility 35% to Diamond and 65% to Guidry, and assessed damages of $1,250,000.
The trial court rendered judgment on the verdict, awarding the plaintiff $620,672.42, including pre-judgment interest. As already noted, a divided court of appeals affirmed.
Jones Act lawsuits in state courts are governed substantively by federal maritime law and procedurally by state law. The plaintiff concedes, as she must, that to recover for Guidry's death, she was required to prove that it occurred while he was "in the course of his employment" within the meaning of the Act. The parties disagree about what evidence is sufficient to meet this burden, and whether any was adduced.
Diamond argues for three reasons that none was. First, Diamond says, there is no evidence that it could possibly have benefitted from a few employees' drive-by, midnight viewing of another rig docked for repairs. But two of Diamond's managerial employees, John Auth and John McWilliams, as well as the plaintiff's expert testified that such a venture could have been in the course of employment. That testimony was some evidence to satisfy the plaintiff's burden. Second, Diamond contends, there is no evidence that Guidry himself went near the Ocean Confidence that night, even if his fellows did. But the jury could reasonably have inferred, from evidence that he suggested the excursion and accompanied the others, that he wen
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