Recently, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana further shored up the clearly delineated avenues for recovery available to plaintiffs involved in Jones Act and personal injury suits arising under general maritime law.  In Wade v. Clemco Industries Inc., et al, No. 16502 (E.D. La. Feb. 2, 2017), the court affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Scarborough v. Clemco Industries, Inc., and denied the widow of a Jones Act seaman the recovery of punitive damages from non-employer third-parties.

Court documents show that the decedent, Garland Wade, worked as a sandblaster and paint sprayer on vessels owned by Coating Specialists, Inc., and performed work on permanent fixed platforms owned and/or operated by Chevron USA both in Louisiana and Federal waters.  Several years after leaving his employment as a sandblaster, the decedent died of connective tissue disease. In the case at bar, it was alleged that the decedent was not provided with a protective hood, not given instructions for the proper use of the hood he may have been given, and that he was not provided with a safe work place.

Plaintiff, Rose Wade, initially filed suit on grounds that her husband’s death was caused by products manufactured, marketed, designed, sold, and/or distributed by the defendants, and which contained asbestos which she alleged directly caused or aggravated her husband’s illness and death.  As a result of the defendant’s respective actions and/or inactions, Plaintiff sought $5,000,000.00 in damages for the wrongful death of her husband.

Defendant quickly filed motions for partial summary judgment seeking the dismissal of Plaintiff’s claims for non-pecuniary losses, under the well-established rule that Jones Act seamen and their survivors are not entitled to recover non-pecuniary damages from a non-employer third parties. (Scarborough v. Clemco Industries, Inc., 391 F.3d 660, 668 (5th Cir. 2004).)  In conjunction with their efforts, Defendants noted that the Plaintiff in the instant matter had already filed a state court suit in which the decedent had been adjudged to have been a Jones Act seaman, and therefore there could be little question that Scarborough would apply to the claims at issue before the Eastern District.  Defendants also argued that the Supreme Court’s holding in Townsend, which had previously resulted in an award of punitive damages for Employer’s arbitrary withholding of maintenance and cure, did not apply, because the Wade matter did not involve the issues of maintenance and cure.

In response, Plaintiff averred that her claims against the non-employer third-parties did not arise under the Jones Act or general maritime law; however, the Court disagreed with this assertion.  In so doing, the Honorable Judge Eldon Fallon found this case to be analogous to McBride v. Estis Well Serv., L.L.C., 768 F.3d 382 (5th Cir. 2014), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 2310 (2015), and noted that in that matter, as in the instant case, Plaintiff elected to bring her claim under general maritime law, and thus the parties were to be bound by the limitations on damages previously established under that body of law.  In granting the defendants’ motions in Wade, the court further solidified the foundation laid by McBride and its progeny, in wrongful death cases brought under general maritime law, which continue to limit a survivor’s recovery from employers and non-employers to pecuniary losses in cases where the Jones Act is implicated.