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A crew member injured aboard a vessel is generally not confined to a compensation schedule. There is a negligence action against the employer, and separately the traditional maritime remedies that attach to the vessel and to the worker’s status.
Longshore and harbor workers who are not crew members typically fall under a separate federal scheme. Getting the classification right at the outset determines the forum, the standard and the damages. Call 713-521-0059.
46 U.S.C. Section 30104 provides that a seaman injured in the course of employment may elect to bring a civil action at law, with the right of trial by jury, against the employer, and that the laws of the United States regulating recovery for personal injury to a railway employee apply to that action. That last clause is what imports the railway employee standard into a maritime case.
Whether a particular worker is a seaman for that purpose depends on the worker’s connection to a vessel and is a question we look at case by case rather than assume.
The vessel’s logs, the crew list, maintenance and inspection records, and the injury report filed with the company. Vessels move and crews change out, so witness identification is time sensitive in a way that shore cases are not.
A Texas personal injury claim generally must be filed within two years of the injury under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. A Jones Act or other maritime tort claim carries three years under 46 U.S.C. Section 30106. Evidence in an industrial setting moves faster than that. Call 713-521-0059.
