Case Name: Guy S. FOLSE and Deborah K. Folse, Individually and on Behalf of the Minor Children, Tiffany, Kristina, Stephanie, Paige, Guy S. Jr., Jason Michael, and Nicholas Anthony Folse v. WESTERN ATLAS INTERNATIONAL, INC./DOWNHOLE SEISMIC SERVICES, Tidex, Inc., Tidewater Ventures, Inc. and Amoco Production Company
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1992-01-17
Citations: 593 So. 2d 341
Docket Number: No. 91 C 1335
Parties: Guy S. FOLSE and Deborah K. Folse, Individually and on Behalf of the Minor Children, Tiffany, Kristina, Stephanie, Paige, Guy S. Jr., Jason Michael, and Nicholas Anthony Folse v. WESTERN ATLAS INTERNATIONAL, INC./DOWNHOLE SEISMIC SERVICES, Tidex, Inc., Tidewater Ventures, Inc. and Amoco Production Company.
Judges: DENNIS, J., concurs with reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 593
Pages: 341–346

Head Matter:
Guy S. FOLSE and Deborah K. Folse, Individually and on Behalf of the Minor Children, Tiffany, Kristina, Stephanie, Paige, Guy S. Jr., Jason Michael, and Nicholas Anthony Folse v. WESTERN ATLAS INTERNATIONAL, INC./DOWNHOLE SEISMIC SERVICES, Tidex, Inc., Tidewater Ventures, Inc. and Amoco Production Company.
No. 91 C 1335.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Jan. 17, 1992.
J. Mac Morgan, New Orleans, for applicant.
Joseph G. Gallagher, Jr., James A. Oswald, Hulse, Nelson & Wanek, George Healy, III, Phelps Dunbar, Ronald A. Johnson, Johnson & McAlpine, New Orleans, for respondent.

Opinion:
WATSON, Justice.
The question is whether summary judgment was properly entered on Jones Act seaman's status. Plaintiff, Guy S. Folse, was injured while working on a vessel and contributing to its mission. The trial court summarily held that Folse was not a seaman, because he was not permanently attached to a specific vessel or an identifiable fleet of vessels. The court of appeal affirmed. Folse v. Western Atlas Intern., Inc., 580 So.2d 482 (La.App. 4th Cir.1991). A writ was granted to consider the issue. 586 So.2d 519 (La.1991).
FACTS
Folse was employed by Downhole Seismic Services, a division of Western Atlas International, Inc., as a senior offshore seismic operator. He was assigned to the M/V HOSEA TIDE, a supply vessel with a certificate of inspection from the United States Coast Guard. The vessel is 165 feet long and may carry up to thirteen crew members. It is not authorized to carry passengers. Folse held a United States Merchant Mariners' document, rating him as an ordinary seaman.
Folse was injured while standing on the vessel's railing attaching a shackle to a buoy. While he was flipping the buoy over the stern, an air gun rack weighing approximately one ton slid into his feet. Because Folse was working on the deck of the boat, he was wearing Reebok tennis shoes, which are allowed by Downhole Seismic's safety manual.
According to the affidavit of Paul S. Henson, the manager of offshore operations for Downhole Seismic, the company conducts seismographic surveys, which are used in oil exploration. Folse spent approximately half his time onshore and half his time offshore. When he worked offshore, his job assignments normally lasted about four days. He slept and ate on the vessel during that period.
The vessels on which Folse worked were usually furnished by Downhole Seismic's customers. Amoco provided the M/V HOSEA TIDE, which was owned by Tidewater Ventures, Inc. and operated by Tidex, Inc. In answer to interrogatories, the owner and the operator of the M/V HOSEA TIDE stated that the vessel "was being used by Downhole Seismic Services" at the time of Folse's injury. When its customer did not have an available vessel, Downhole Seismic would charter a vessel. During the five weeks preceding this accident on August 29, 1989, Folse had worked on five other vessels. Two of the five vessels were chartered directly by Downhole Seismic.
LAW
Only a seaman may assert a negligence action under the Jones Act. 46 U.S.C. app. § 688. A seaman is defined "solely in terms of the employee's connection to a vessel in navigation." McDermott International Inc. v. Wilander, 498 U.S. -, -, 111 S.Ct. 807, 817, 112 L.Ed.2d 866, 882 (1991).
One can be a crew member on numerous vessels which have common ownership or control. Braniff v. Jackson Ave.-Gretna Ferry, Inc., 280 F.2d 523 (5th Cir.1960). When an employer chooses to borrow its customers' vessels in lieu of owning or chartering its own, the borrowed vessels constitute a fleet. Bertrand v. International Mooring & Marine, Inc., 700 F.2d 240 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1069, 104 S.Ct. 974, 79 L.Ed.2d 212 (1984). An employer cannot deprive its employees of seaman's status by extraneous arrangements with its customers. Bertrand.
Bertrand involved an anchorhandling crew which spent most of its time offshore. Bertrand and his co-workers were assigned to a vessel their employer had borrowed from its customer. Although the crew worked on many vessels, at jobs averaging four or five days, the Bertrand plaintiffs presented a jury question on Jones Act seamen status. The missions of the vessels and plaintiffs' jobs were coextensive. See Roberts v. Williams-McWilliams Co., 648 F.2d 255 (5th Cir.1981). When plaintiffs finished their responsibilities, the vessels' missions were completed. Bertrand expanded the concept of a fleet to vessels used, but not owned or chartered, by the employer. "The Bertrand result seems unassailable." Robertson, A New Approach to Determining Seaman Status, 64 Tex.L.Rev. 79, 110 (1985).
Wilander focused on jettisoning the aid to navigation requirement of Jones Act coverage. However, Wilander also emphasized employment-connection to a vessel in navigation as the sole test of coverage.
There has been a further requirement that a Jones Act seaman be more or less permanently attached to a specific vessel or an identifiable fleet of vessels. Barrett v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 781 F.2d 1067 (5th Cir.1986) (en banc); Offshore Co. v. Robison, 266 F.2d 769 (5th Cir.1959); Bach v. Trident Steamship Co., Inc., 920 F.2d 322 (5th Cir.), vacated, 498 U.S.-, 111 S.Ct. 2253, 114 L.Ed.2d 706 (1991), reinstated, 947 F.2d 1290 (5th Cir.1991). This requirement was designed to distinguish between transitory, land-based employees and those working aboard a vessel for a voyage. See Robertson, A New Approach to Determining Seaman Status, 64 Tex.L.Rev. 79 (1985).
The attachment rule has been mechanically applied to exclude maritime workers on short voyages aboard a large number of vessels from Jones Act coverage. For example, Bach held that a river pilot was not a seaman because his work aboard each vessel was transitory. The United States Supreme Court vacated Bach for reconsideration in light of Wilander. Wilander does not mention more or less permanent attachment to a vessel or fleet of vessels. The Bach panel of the Fifth Circuit reinstated its vacated opinion, stating that "Wilander has no effect" on its opinion. 947 F.2d 1290.
Southwest Marine, Inc. v. Gizoni, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 486, 116 L.Ed.2d 405 (1991), held that a rigging foreman employed in ship repair, who rode on floating platforms, was not excluded from seaman's status. Although Gizoni only "rode" the platforms during working hours, the United States Supreme Court concluded that his status as a Jones Act seaman was a jury question. Gizoni casts further doubt on the more or less permanent attachment aspect of Robison, Barrett and Bach.
Seaman's status under the Jones Act is a mixed question of law and fact. Wilander; Gizoni. It "depends largely on the facts of the particular ease and the activity in which he was engaged at the time of injury." Desper v. Starved Rock Ferry Co., 342 U.S. 187, 190, 72 S.Ct. 216, 218, 96 L.Ed. 205, 209 (1952), as quoted in Wilander. In general, a directed verdict or a summary judgment on the issue of seaman's status is inappropriate. See Wilander.
CONCLUSION
The M/V HOSEA TIDE was being used by Downhole Seismic for a seismographic surveying voyage. Folse's offshore job assignments normally lasted about four days. During those four days, Folse slept and ate aboard the vessel. Folse was not a land based worker providing shore services to docked vessels. He went to sea on specific short voyages. In each case, his tour of duty was for the duration of the vessel's mission. Folse was not a transitory employee; he was certainly more "attached" than Gizoni. The vessel's voyage and Folse's job were coextensive. Folse, a licensed seaman, was injured while assigned to the M/V HOSEA TIDE, a Coast Guard certified vessel.
These facts fit the Bertrand rationale. The employees of Downhole Seismic did not work on their employer's vessels because Downhole Seismic chose to use the vessels of its customers. When Downhole Seismic had to charter a vessel, its employees performed the same work that was performed on the customers' vessels. If the company had chartered a fleet of vessels, its employees would be seamen. They cannot be deprived of seaman's status by the employer's business decision to use its customers' boats.
Folse's assignment was less transient than Bach's, but it was not permanent. It involved substantial work on given missions. Folse was injured while working as a deckhand preparing the vessel for its mission. Unlike Bach, Folse served only on ships borrowed or chartered by his employer. The vessels to which Folse was assigned could constitute a fleet under Bertrand. There is a common nexus missing in Bach. Thus, Bach's situation can be distinguished from that of Folse. Moreover, the effect of Wilander and Gizoni on cases like Bach has not been finally resolved.
His employer assigned Folse to a vessel for the duration of its seismographic surveying voyage. His employment connection to a vessel in navigation presents a jury question on Jones Act seaman status. A reasonable juror could conclude that Folse was a seaman.
The court of appeal erred in affirming the trial court's summary judgment that Folse was not a seaman as a matter of law.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the court of appeal is reversed and the matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
DENNIS, J., concurs with reasons.
LEMMON, J., concurs and assigns reasons.