Individuals who work offshore and on the water must be very careful when they sustain an injury at work. Most of these individuals will qualify as “seamen” under a Federal statute known as the Jones Act. The Jones Act allows an injured maritime worker to file a tort-based lawsuit against their employer and seek all damages caused by the injury including pain and suffering, lost wages and loss of fringe benefits. However, in order to file suit under the Jones Act the maritime worker must first meet the definition of a “seaman” under the Jones Act. This definition states that the employee must be “more or less permanently assigned to a vessel or fleet of vessels in navigation.”
The first requirement that the individual be “more or less” permanently assigned to a vessel is usually interpreted as requiring the individual to work at least 30 percent or more of his time aboard a vessel or vessels. Several cases have held that as long as the employee meets the “30 percent rule” he will satisfy the permanency requirement of the seaman definition.
The next requirement is that the individual be assigned to work aboard a vessel or fleet of vessels. This does not necessarily require that the individual work aboard a traditional vessel such as a tug boat, supply vessel or crew boat. In the Gulf of Mexico as well as other regions there are many specialized structures that actually qualify as “vessels” under the Jones Act. Specifically, offshore jack up drilling rigs and semi submersible drilling rigs as well as crane barges and jack up boats all qualify as vessels under the definition of a seaman. The United States Supreme Court recent issued a case stating that any structure that is “typically capable of navigation” may meet the definition of a vessel under the Jones Act for purposes of seaman status.
Even if the maritime worker is assigned to numerous vessels, and not one specific vessel, the worker can still satisfy the definition of a seaman. The definition states that the worker can also be assigned to a “fleet of vessels” as long as the fleet is under a common ownership or control.
The last requirement necessary for a maritime worker to satisfy the definition of a seaman under the Jones Act is for the maritime worker to be assigned to a vessel “in navigation”. This requirement has been broadly defined and as long as the maritime worker generally contributes to the mission of the vessel the courts have held that the vessel is “in navigation”. Even if the vessel is temporarily moored or even stationary in the Gulf of Mexico as is common with special purpose vessels such as jack-up drilling rigs and lift boats, these structures will still be deemed “in navigation” even though they are not technically moving.
Satisfying the definition of a seaman under the Jones Act can be critically important for an injured Maritime worker to fully recover due to an injury offshore. Only by meeting the definition of a seaman will the injured employee be allowed to file suit under the Jones Act. And only under the Jones Act will the injured employee collect lost wages, pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses as well as other compensation for his injury. If the injured employee does not meet the definition of a seaman, he will not be allowed to file a negligence, tort type lawsuit against his employer. Instead, he will be restricted to recovering only workers’ compensation type benefits which typically do not fairly compensate the employee.