Opinion ID: 1921829
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jones act / maritime claims

Text: In sustaining the exception of prescription, the trial court found that the Plaintiffs' cause of action against Glidden rested in Louisiana products liability law, and thus a one-year statute of limitations applied. In affirming the decision of the trial court, the court of appeal agreed that the Plaintiffs' claims against Glidden were governed by Louisiana law. Rather than limiting its ruling to the narrow issue before it, the court of appeal overreached and went on to summarily hold that these plaintiffs were not Jones Act seamen, the craft on which they served was not a vessel, and their claims against the defendants did not fall within the admiralty jurisdictioneffectively dismissing the Plaintiffs' entire action against all remaining defendants, Belle, Bally's and VMS. Not only were these issues not directly before the court, but, based on the record before the court of appeal, there was no evidence upon which the court of appeal could properly make these findings. Thus we vacate the ruling on these issues.