Opinion ID: 1772570
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence of Plaintiff's Recovery of Workmen's Compensation Benefits

Text: Defendant's final challenge to the proceedings below is that the trial court erred in keeping from the jury evidence of plaintiff's receipt of workmen's compensation benefits and his lawsuit in Baldwin County for additional workmen's compensation benefits. It is clear that this evidence was inadmissible for the purpose of showing that plaintiff should not be compensated under the Jones Act because of prior and future compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act. Tipton v. Socony Mobil Oil Co., 375 U.S. 34, 84 S.Ct. 1, 11 L.Ed.2d 4 (1963). Defendant argues, however, that the evidence was admissible to show that plaintiff did not consider himself to be a seaman. We disagree. Plaintiff's subjective belief that he is or is not a seaman has no place in the legal test for determining his status under the Jones Act. Robison and the other cases discussed in Part I, supra, do not consider plaintiff's opinion a relevant factor. Defendant's reliance on Savoie v. Otto Candies, Inc., 692 F.2d 363 (5th Cir.1982), is misplaced. In Savoie, the defendant had discharged the plaintiff from the vessel. However, defendant paid plaintiff seaman's maintenance after his injury. Plaintiff maintained that discharges were routinely given to seamen who were expected to return to the vessel in a few days. The central issue was whether plaintiff retained his status as a seaman after being discharged. In holding that admission of the evidence of maintenance payments was not prejudicial error, the court stated: Contrary to Candies' assertions here and below, its payment of seaman's maintenance was not totally irrelevant. Candies had originally brought out that Savoie was `discharged' from the vessel... and this evidence tended to cast light on whether or not such `discharge' was intended to fully terminate Savoie as a Candies seaman, as opposed to being merely a routine formality when a seaman was temporarily rotated off the ship and expected to soon return to his duties there in accordance with normal practice. These payments tended to show that Candies regarded Savoie as being a seaman at the time of the accident, notwithstanding his prior `discharge.' This, in turn, was relevant to whether, when Savoie left the vessel and throughout his absence from it, there existed a mutual understanding and intention that his absence did not fully sever all aspects of his relationship to the Candies fleet and that, immediately following a brief period of recuperation, he would return to the actual performance of his duties as a deckhand upon the M/V ADELLE CANDIES.... 692 F.2d at 367. The court in Savoie held that admission of evidence of the payments was not reversible error; it did not hold that exclusion of the evidence would have been reversible error. Moreover, the evidence in that case was not admitted to show that plaintiff believed he was or was not a seaman, but was admitted to show what the defendant intended by the routine discharges. Thus, Savoie is distinguishable from the present case. In holding that the trial court did not err in excluding evidence of the workmen's compensation payments and the pending lawsuit, we note that there is no dispute in this case that plaintiff will not receive a double recovery. It is clear that the trial court and the parties contemplated that the payer of the benefits would receive credit for the amounts already paid to plaintiff. In conclusion, we find that the trial court erred in granting defendant's motion for JNOV. Moreover, we do not find any error requiring the grant of a new trial. Therefore, let the JNOV be reversed and the case remanded to the trial court for reinstatement of the verdict and entry of judgment thereon. REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS. TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, JONES and SHORES, JJ., concur.