Commercial Fisherman Held to Be “Nonseafarer” Under Yamaha

Commercial Fisherman Held to Be “Nonseafarer” Under Yamaha

By: Regan Canfill

In re: Marquette Transp. Co. Gulf-Inland, LLC, 2016 U.S.Dist. LeXIS 55468, 2016 WL 1587382 (E.D. La. 2016)In a recent opinion, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held that a licensed crabber was a “nonseafarer” for purposes of the Supreme Court’s holding in Yamaha Motor Corp., USA v. Calhoun, 516 U.S. 199 (1996), allowing the survivors of the crabber to seek pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages under Texas’s wrongful death and survival statutes.In July 2013, a vessel owned by commercial fisherman, John Tran, collided with a towing vessel owned by Marquette LLC killing Mr. Tran. The collision occurred in the territorial waters of Texas. Following Mr. Tran’s death, his survivors filed a civil suit in federal court against Marquette alleging unseaworthiness, negligent hiring and negligent retention, gross negligence and punitive damages. On April 19, 2016, the Tran claimants filed a memorandum of law averring that they should be allowed to supplement remedies under general maritime law with state-law remedies provided by Texas’s wrongful death and survival statute.The Supreme Court in Yamaha drew a distinction between seafarers and nonseafarers, holding that the general maritime wrongful death action did not preempt state remedies in cases involving the death of a nonseafarer in state territorial waters. In a footnote, the Court explained that nonseafarers were persons who are neither seaman covered by the Jones Act… nor longshore workers covered by the Longshore Act. However further in the opinion the court issued a conflicting statement, describing nonseafarers as a person “not a seaman, longshore worker, or person otherwise engaged in maritime trade.”The Tran claimants argued that because Mr. Tran was neither a Jones Act seaman nor a maritime employee covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (“Longshore Act”), he should be deemed a “nonseafarer” and being designated as such, his survivors should be allowed to pursue state law remedies under Yamaha. In response, Marquette avowed that Tran, as a licensed crabber, was a “person engaged in maritime trade.” Therefore, as such, Tran was a “seafarer” under Yamaha, prohibiting his survivors from recovering non-pecuniary damages under state law.The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana noted that in response to the conundrum created by the Supreme Court in Yamaha, several districts court have held that commercial fisherman like Tran, are encompassed within the Court’s definition of those “otherwise engaged in maritime trade.” Other courts have held that a nonseafarer is a person who is neither a Jones Act seaman nor a longshore worker or maritime employee covered by the Longshore Act. The latter have held that Yahmaha’s definition of nonseafarer applies to those not covered by Congressional statute, and thus allows such persons to supplement wrongful death claims under general maritime law with applicable state law. Further, Schoenbaum’s Admiralty and Maritime Law also describes a nonseafarer as “a person who is neither a seaman or a longshoreman.”

The Eastern District found the second line of opinions to be more persuasive, holding the Tran, as a commercial fisherman, was a nonseafarer under Yamaha, such that his survivors can supplement wrongful death and survivorship claims under general maritime law with state law remedies. The court stated it was “reasonable to conclude that Yamaha’s reference to ‘person[s] not engaged in maritime trade’ merely refers to those maritime employees who are not longshore workers but are, nonetheless, covered by the LHWCA.” In conclusion, the court held that Tran, as a commercial fisherman, was “not covered by the ‘comprehensive tort recovery regime’ provided for by Congressional maritime statutes.” Accordingly, Tran was a nonseafarer and Yamaha did not preclude his survivors from applying Texas statutes permitting the recovery of non-pecuniary damages.