Opinion ID: 497009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: self's claims against great lakes

Text: 19 The trial court found that Great Lakes negligently breached its duty to Danny Self by failing to follow Corps of Engineers safety regulations as required by Great Lakes' dredging contract with the government. 613 F.Supp. at 1437. The court also found that Great Lakes' negligence was a proximate cause of the drowning of Self. Id. at 1438. Although in its initial brief Great Lakes did not directly challenge these findings on appeal, we note as a preliminary matter that they are fully supported by the record and the applicable law. We must thus address Self's claims on appeal--challenges to the amount and apportionment of damages.
20 In this appeal Self challenges the application by the district court of apportionment principles set out by this court in Leger v. Drilling Well Control, Inc., 592 F.2d 1246 (5th Cir.1979), to the award of damages to Self. Because the court determined that Great Lakes was 30% responsible for the accident, and because Self had settled with Chevron (which was found by the district court to be 70% responsible), the court awarded Self only 30% of the total damages of $661,354. Chevron had paid Self $315,000 and taken a release. The district court was of the opinion that Leger required this result, which meant that Self received compensation in the sum of $513,406.20, or $147,948.80 less than the total damages of $661,354. 21 To understand Leger, it is necessary to briefly review the law controlling the apportionment of damages in maritime cases. As early as 1855, it was the law in American courts that damages arising from a maritime collision should be equally divided among joint tortfeasors, regardless of their degree of responsibility for the collision. See The Schooner Catharine v. Dickinson, 58 U.S. (17 How.) 170, 15 L.Ed. 233 (1855). The Supreme Court in The Schooner Catharine drew on earlier English law that required equal division of damages. Then, in 1975, finding the United States to be virtually alone among the world's major maritime nations in adhering to the equal division of damages rule, the Supreme Court overturned The Schooner Catharine and adopted a rule of proportional fault for liability for property damage arising from maritime collisions. See United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U.S. 397, 403, 95 S.Ct. 1708, 1712, 44 L.Ed.2d 251 (1975). 2 Reliable Transfer did not address liability for personal injuries caused by a maritime collision. 22 The Fifth Circuit in Leger extended the proportional fault rule of Reliable Transfer to reach personal injuries. 592 F.2d at 1249. 3 The Leger court then endorsed a rule set out by the district court requiring that the judgment awarded to the claimant against a nonsettling defendant is credited with the dollar amount represented by the proportion of negligence, if any, attributed to the settling parties. Id. at 1248. The court in Leger explicitly took the approach that the plaintiff who settles with one joint tortfeasor takes the benefit, or burden, of his bargain. If he makes a good settlement, he could receive total compensation more than his actual damages, while if he makes a bad settlement he would receive less than his actual damages. Id. at 1250 & n. 9. 4 23 Two months after this court issued its opinion in Leger, the Supreme Court decided Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 99 S.Ct. 2753, 61 L.Ed.2d 521 (1979). The Edmonds opinion included language that cast serious doubt over the full implications of the Leger approach. In the wake of Edmonds, the Eleventh Circuit backed away from and disavowed certain aspects of Leger. See Ebanks v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 688 F.2d 716 (11th Cir.1982); Drake Towing Company v. Meisner Marine Construction Company, 765 F.2d 1060 (11th Cir.1985). 24 Although not directly related to the holding in the case, the Court's opinion in Edmonds strongly and repeatedly reaffirmed the right of a plaintiff to recover from any single tortfeasor the full compensation for damages incurred.  'Nothing is more clear than the right of a plaintiff, having suffered such a loss, to sue in a common-law action all the wrong-doers, or anyone of them, at his election; and it is equally clear, that, if he did not contribute to the disaster, he is entitled to judgment in either case for the full amount of his loss.'  443 U.S. at 260 n. 9, 99 S.Ct. at 527 n. 9 (quoting The Atlas, 93 U.S. 302, 23 L.Ed. 863 (1876)). The Court noted that a concurrent tortfeasor generally may seek contribution from another, but he is not relieved from liability for the entire damages even when the nondefendant tortfeasor is immune from liability. 443 U.S. at 260 n. 8, 99 S.Ct. at 527 n. 8. 25 The Supreme Court in Edmonds specifically considered the implications of its opinion in United States v. Reliable Transfer, on which the Leger decision is based: [In Reliable Transfer ] we did not upset the rule that the plaintiff may recover from one of the colliding vessels the damage concurrently caused by the negligence of both. Id. at 271 n. 30, 99 S.Ct. at 534 n. 30 (emphasis in original). The Court noted that [c]ontribution remedies the unjust enrichment of the concurrent tortfeasor, and while it may sometimes limit the ultimate loss of the tortfeasor chosen by the plaintiff, it does not justify allocating more of the loss to the innocent employee, who was not unjustly enriched. Id. In our opinion, this statement rejects the philosophy in the Leger case that it is the plaintiff who bears the loss or obtains the gain under facts such as are in this case. The philosophy governing Edmonds is clear: any inequity which results from the implementation of a seaman's damage award should be borne by the tortfeasors rather than the seaman himself. Joia v. Jo-Jo Service Corp., 817 F.2d 908, 917 (1st Cir.1987). 26 In Ebanks, this court's earlier opinion in this case, the panel considered the language quoted above and concluded that [Leger's ] effect as precedent has been weakened by Edmonds. 688 F.2d at 720. Then, in Drake Towing, the court ordered that one joint tortfeasor pay full damages (less that attributable to the plaintiff's own negligence), even though the plaintiff had already settled with another joint tortfeasor. See 765 F.2d at 1067. The court considered the Leger opinion, and described the Leger holding in extremely narrow terms, thereby construing Leger to avoid a conflict with the approach endorsed by the Supreme Court in Edmonds. At least one other circuit court has determined that the Leger approach cannot withstand the more recent Edmonds opinion; that court specifically approved of this court's Ebanks decision, while specifically rejecting Leger. See Joia, 817 F.2d at 915-17. 27 We conclude that the district court erred in relying upon the Leger opinion in requiring Great Lakes to pay Self only $198,406.20 instead of $356,350. As we previously mentioned, although this court in Ebanks reversed the district court in this case because of a misapplication of the Leger principles, it is not altogether surprising that on remand the district court (through a different district judge) again misapplied Leger. The Ebanks case, in not following Leger, relied in part on the fact that in Leger all tortfeasors were before the court and jury for the sole purpose of allocating to each tortfeasor its percentage of liability for paying Leger's damages in the amount of $284,090, awarded to Leger in a prior jury trial. 28 The trial court granted Dresser's motion for a new trial on the ground that the jury should have been informed that DWC and Continental were originally defendants, that Leger had settled his claims against them, and that Travelers was to receive one-half of all sums received by Leger from Dresser. The court considered it necessary that the jury be aware of the continuing interest in the law suit of the various witnesses from DWC and Continental. 29 Leger, 592 F.2d at 1247. 30 Leger thus differs from this case because Chevron was not before the court in the trial of this case at the first trial but was a party in this second trial for the purpose of assessing liability between Chevron and Great Lakes as to their purported claims against each other. However, at no time after the settlement did Self seek any further damages from Chevron. Under the principle announced in Luke v. Signal Oil & Gas Co., 523 F.2d 1190 (5th Cir.1975), contributions cannot be obtained by one tortfeasor from a tortfeasor who has settled with and been released by the claimant. The purpose of the second trial in this case was not the same as the second trial in the Leger case, which had as its sole purpose the apportionment of damages between the tortfeasors. 31 There are other facts that distinguish this case from those very peculiar facts in Leger. As mentioned previously, Travelers' policyholders, DWC and Continental, had a monetary interest in the amount of damages collected by Leger from non-settling codefendant Dresser. Their interest in Leger's damages was that Travelers was to receive one-half of any funds collected by Leger from Dresser. There is no similar agreement in this case. Another distinctive fact was that in the second trial on the sole issue of the apportionment of liability amongst the three tortfeasors, DWC, Leger's employer was found to be guilty of no negligence, thus skewing the award of damages in the amount of $82,331.05 paid by Travelers in DWC's behalf to Leger in settlement. Thus, this sum was not used in reducing the judgment and was a windfall to Leger, which offset in part the sum that Leger had to pay to Travelers. The last distinctive difference between the Leger case and this one is that Leger was found to be 35% contributorily negligent, which affected the complicated calculations. 32 Because of these distinctions, namely the change in the law by Edmonds and Ebanks, and the differences in the facts, we do not consider Leger as controlling our opinion in this case. 33 We do not overlook the fact that in a case such as this, a joint tortfeasor may be left paying a higher or lower percentage of the damages than it caused. Nor do we overlook the rule that there may be joint contribution amongst tortfeasors in an admiralty case and that in the absence of a settlement, the amount of contribution turns on the percentage of fault of each joint tortfeasor. See Cooper Stevedoring Co. v. Fritz Kopke, Inc., 417 U.S. 106, 94 S.Ct. 2174, 40 L.Ed.2d 694 (1974). Leger upheld that settling defendants are relieved of any further liability to the plaintiff. 592 F.2d at 1248 (relying upon Luke v. Signal Oil & Gas Co., supra.). It is obvious that the rule announced in Luke overrides the right of contribution. 34 We acknowledge that the rule that we adopt today may cause disparity in the percentage of payment as between the settling and nonsettling tortfeasors in maritime personal injury actions. We note, however, that this court is not unique in adopting such a rule. Among those states that have incorporated comparative fault principles into their tort systems, but have retained the rule that there is no contribution from settling tortfeasors, there is a split of authority as to how a nonsettling tortfeasor's share of damages should be calculated. Some states have adopted the rule that Leger employed, while others require that the nonsettling tortfeasor's share be reduced only by the amount paid by a settling tortfeasor. Prosser and Keeton, The Law of Torts, Sec. 67 at 476 (5th ed. 1984). 35 As we are bound by the Supreme Court's guidance and the rule in Edmonds, we adopt the latter of these approaches. 5 We hold that Self can recover from Great Lakes the full damages, less the amount already recovered from Chevron through the settlement. The Leger approach has much merit in terms of efficiency and realistic settlement practices, but Edmonds and Eleventh Circuit cases following Edmonds require this result. 6 36 Finally, we note that the remedial nature of general maritime law, and the Jones Act in particular, support this result. The joint and several loss allocating mechanism which serves to provide an injured seaman his full judgment is consonant with the policy behind the Jones Act, to provide protection to seamen who are victims of negligence. Joia, 817 F.2d at 917 (citations omitted). In cases such as this, the general goal of maritime law is to provide quick and full compensation to the injured seaman, while leaving the primary litigation dispute to the question of which joint tortfeasor is liable for what percentage of the damages. Historically maritime law has treated seamen as in need of special protection; until the Supreme Court suggests otherwise, we cannot move away from that special protection to an arguably more efficient system in which an injured seaman is viewed as an equal party with equal bargaining power. Because of our resolution of this claim, we need not reach Self's contention that the trial court erred by apportioning liability based on degrees of fault for the collision, instead of apportioning liability based on degrees of fault for the death of Danny Self. Arguably, because Chevron had nothing to do with the safety violations of Great Lakes, Great Lakes bears a greater degree of responsibility for Self's death than it does for the collision itself. We do not address this argument.
37 On appeal, Self argues that the district court failed to make adequate findings of fact as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 52 concerning various claims for damages. With regard to certain issues discussed below, we agree. Rule 52 requires that the trial court find the facts specially and state separately its conclusions of law thereon. [T]he findings must be specifically detailed to give [an appellate court] a clear understanding of the analytical process by which ultimate findings were reached and to assure us that the trial court took care in ascertaining the facts. Golf City, Inc. v. Wilson Sporting Goods Co., 555 F.2d 426, 433 (5th Cir.1977). This court cannot be left to guess. The findings and conclusions we review must be expressed with sufficient particularity to allow us to determine rather than speculate that the law has been correctly applied. Hydrospace-Challenger, Inc. v. Tracor/MAS, Inc., 520 F.2d 1030, 1034 (5th Cir.1975). 38 Although the district court's opinion is generally careful and thorough, it does fail to make sufficient findings to permit adequate review of Self's claims for damages. A remand for appropriate findings is the normal procedure. See Armstrong v. Collier, 536 F.2d 72, 77 (5th Cir.1976). A remand is not required if a complete understanding of the issues is possible in the absence of separate findings and if there is a sufficient basis for the appellate court's consideration of the merits of the case. Where the acts relied upon to support the judgment are in the record and are undisputed remand is unnecessary. Gulf Towing Co. v. Steam Tanker, AMOCO New York, 648 F.2d 242, 245 (5th Cir. Unit B June 1981). As discussed below, however, Great Lakes and Self disagree about the appropriateness of certain claims for damages. In this case, we think it more appropriate for the district court to make the initial findings on these claims, because that court has had the benefit of receiving first hand all of the evidence of the events leading to Danny Self's death.
39 The trial court made no findings or award of damages for conscious pain and suffering experienced by Danny Self before he died. Although the lower court's opinion makes no reference to pain and suffering, the record paints a vivid picture of the final moments of Self's life. According to Burke, the seaman who tried to save Self, men thrown into the water when the barge overturned were sucked under the water for what seemed like an eternity. Record, Volume 24, at 61. After Burke surfaced, Self then surfaced, and Burke saw that Self had no life jacket. Burke told Self to hold on to him, which Self did. Id. at 62. According to Burke, 40 we struggled more or less. For the most part, his feet were on my shoulders and I was kicking, trying to surface. He was on top of me. That's where we stayed. Then we hit the ship and that's when he lost it, or I lost him, however it worked out. We lost our grip on one another. I saw him leaving me. I tried to reach him, but the buoyancy of my jacket kept me up so I couldn't. And I just saw him slip under me.... I know the water was moving very swiftly.... It was cold. I don't know what the exact temperature was, but it was pretty icy to go overboard, I know that. 41 Id. at 62-64. It seems clear that Self was conscious for at least a few moments after the barge overturned and before Self and Burke lost their grip and sucked Self under the water to his death. 42 A damages award for conscious pain and suffering is appropriate, depending on the facts, in maritime wrongful death actions. See Hlodan v. Ohio Barge Line, 611 F.2d 71, 76 (5th Cir.1980); Dickerson v. Continental Oil Company, 449 F.2d 1209, 1216 (5th Cir.1971). In Hlodan, the evidence showed that for some undetermined number of minutes before his death Hlodan was aware of his predicament, and that his death by drowning was not instantaneous. 611 F.2d at 76. In Dickerson, the court wrote that if the decedent was conscious while in the water, ... then it must be without dispute that he did suffer some pain ... from the anguish of struggling against drowning. 449 F.2d at 1216. We think that in this case the district court should have made specific findings about pain and suffering damages to which Self may be entitled. See Lettsome v. United States, 411 F.2d 917, 923 (5th Cir.1969) (remanding for specific Rule 52(a) findings on pain and suffering in maritime injury case).
43 Similarly, the district court made no specific mention or findings about the seaworthiness of the dredge Alaska. It may be that the lower court factored a finding of unseaworthiness into the award of damages, or that the court found that the vessel was in fact seaworthy. Without any discussion of seaworthiness and of whether any unseaworthiness should enhance Great Lakes' liability to Self, however, we cannot adequately review the district court judgment. See Glapion v. MS Journalist, 487 F.2d 1252 (5th Cir.1973) (affirming specific findings concerning seaworthiness due to defect in ship, but remanding for specific findings concerning safety violation). In light of the district court's award of nonpecuniary damages to Self, we can almost assume that the court found the vessel to be unseaworthy. See Ivy v. Security Barge Lines, Inc., 606 F.2d 524 (5th Cir.1979) (en banc) (holding that nonpecuniary damages cannot be awarded under Jones Act). Rather than speculating, however, we prefer to allow the district court to state its findings clearly. 44 The record suggests that a finding of unseaworthiness would be plausible. Violations of safety regulations can lead to findings of unseaworthiness, see Manning v. M/V Sea Road, 417 F.2d 603 (5th Cir.1969), as can the failure to adequately train a ship's crew, see Hercules Carriers, Inc. v. Claimant State of Florida, 768 F.2d 1558 (11th Cir.1985). We leave to the district court on remand the determination in the first instance of questions of seaworthiness and possible enhancement of damages. See Farbwerke Hoeschst A.G. v. M/V Don Nicky, 589 F.2d 795 (5th Cir.1979) (remanding for specific findings on unseaworthiness and damages).
45 As with unseaworthiness, the lower court order is silent about punitive damages. Punitive damages should be available in cases where the shipowner willfully violated the duty to maintain a safe and seaworthy ship, as was found to exist on the part of Great Lakes by the district court, or where the shipowner's acts (or failures to act) recklessly increased the danger of a disaster. In this case, Great Lakes had been warned by local pilots' association about the possibility of the exact type of collision that occurred (involving a ship shearing into the barge), yet Great Lakes chose to ignore the warnings, and may not even have passed the warnings on to the crew of the dredge Alaska. Furthermore, Great Lakes' failure to maintain adequate safety devices and procedures on the Alaska may rise to the level of willfulness or recklessness. In light of these facts, we think that some specific determination about punitive damages must be made. We will leave the initial decision to the district court on remand. See Complaint of Merry Shipping, Inc., 650 F.2d 622 (5th Cir. Unit B July 1981) (remanding for findings on punitive damages).
46 Again, the lower court opinion is silent about prejudgment interest. In general, 47 prejudgment interest should be awarded in admiralty cases--not as a penalty, but as compensation for the use of funds to which the claimant was rightfully entitled. Discretion to deny prejudgment interest is created only when there are peculiar circumstances that would make it inequitable for the losing party to be forced to pay prejudgment interest. 48 Noritake Co. v. M/V Hellenic Champion, 627 F.2d 724, 728 (5th Cir. Unit 1980) (footnote and citations omitted). Although it is accepted practice to award prejudgment interest without making specific findings, see id. at 729, a denial of interest usually calls for specific findings. 49 [I]n any admiralty case in which the trial court refuses to award prejudgment interest, the best practice would be for it to detail the peculiar circumstance it has found, and specifically indicate that it is denying prejudgment interest as an exercise of the discretion created by the existence of peculiar circumstances. 50 Id. at 729 n. 4. In the absence of clear findings by the district court, an appellate court could search the record for peculiar circumstances and decide to award or deny prejudgment interest without a remand. See Noritake, 627 F.2d at 730 (awarding interest); Parker Towing Co. v. Yazoo River Towing, Inc., 794 F.2d 591, 594 (11th Cir.1986) (denying interest). In this case, however, because we are remanding to the district court for reconsideration of other possible awards of damages, we choose also to remand this question for explicit findings by the court below. 7
51 Before his death, Danny Self did not typically work on a dredge year round (presumably because of the seasonal nature of the work). In addition to the dredge work, the district court assume[d] Mr. Self would also work 790 hours per year ... at a job earning minimum wage. 613 F.Supp. at 1438. On appeal, Self contends that the district court erred by making this assumption, arguing that the assumption was not a finding of fact, and that if it was, it is clearly erroneous. 52 In reviewing the district court's opinion, it is not clear whether this assumption was a finding, and thus it is unclear whether the assumption deserves the deference normally accorded to findings of fact. For purposes of this decision, we will assume that the assumption is a finding of fact. Having searched the record on appeal, however, we can find no evidence to support the assumption, and we thus determine that, based on the current record, it is clearly erroneous. The trial judge apparently drew the assumption from an assumption made by Great Lakes' expert. See supra note 12. Yet, as the expert admitted, his assumption did not take into account any experience or skills that Self would acquire in his dredging work, notwithstanding the fact that the district court found that Self would advance to the position of mate and then leverman on the dredge. By adopting the expert's assumption, the district court essentially held that a leverman (who is second only to the captain of a dredge) would hold only semi-skilled jobs during the off-months, for the remainder of his career. The assumption also ignores the uncontradicted evidence that prior to his death Self had worked in the construction field during at least one of the non-dredge periods, and that the wages in the construction field were typically higher than minimum wage. Based on the record, we thus hold that the district court's assumption is clearly erroneous. 53 On remand, the trial court may decide to require more evidence as to Self's non-dredge work. We do not reject the possibility that based on further evidence the trial court will conclude that Self would only earn the minimum wage for at least a portion of his career. We only hold that based on the record as it now stands, there is no support for the trial court's assumption that Self would never have earned more than the minimum wage during the periods he was not working on a dredge. 8 D. Reduction of Future Wages to Present Value 54 Self challenges on appeal the method used by the district court to calculate the present value of its award of future earnings. As Great Lakes concedes in their brief on appeal, the district court used the case-by-case method that was specifically rejected by the en banc court of the former Fifth Circuit in Culver v. Slater Boat Co., 722 F.2d 114, 120 (5th Cir.1983) (en banc). 9 Culver required that courts in this circuit use the below-market discount method to adjust awards of future damages to present value. The district court's mistake is largely due to its reliance on Great Lakes' expert, who used the incorrect method. 55 In this appeal, Great Lakes argues that the error was harmless. Its expert used a 10.75% discount rate, which is substantially higher than the 1%-3% rate approved in Culver. Because their expert allowed for inflation in the initial calculations (contrary to the approach used in Culver ), Great Lakes argues that the effective discount rate is only marginally higher than the 3% rate approved in Culver. Thus, according to Great Lakes, the use of the improper method was harmless. 56 For two reasons, we decline to reach the question of whether the use of the discredited case-by-case method can ever be harmless. First, the Great Lakes expert applied the too-high discount rate to all future damages, including those not adjusted upward for inflation. Thus, at least for certain portions of the damages award, the effective discount rate was substantially higher than is proper. Second, in light of our remand above for a reassessment of the use of the minimum wage for Danny Self's entire life, it is likely that the entire damages figure will need to be recalculated. On remand, the district court should use the below-market discount method described in Culver and Deakle v. John E. Graham & Sons, 756 F.2d 832 (11th Cir.1985). E. Damage for Loss of Society 57 The district court awarded to Mrs. Self $70,000 for the loss of society, love, and companionship of her deceased husband, and the court awarded $15,000 to each of Danny Self's two children. On appeal, Mrs. Self argues that these awards are grossly inadequate. Self cites numerous cases where $200,000 to $500,000 was awarded for loss of society. Great Lakes, on the other hand, cites cases where $25,000 to $75,000 was awarded for loss of society. 58 In reviewing the amount of damage awards, this court is generally limited to the question of whether the trier of fact abused its discretion. See Hawkes v. Ayers, 537 F.2d 836, 837 (5th Cir.1976). While the district court did not describe how it determined the amount of the awards for loss of society, we do not find any abuse of discretion in the amount. Although the award was small, it was not 'unconscionably inadequate,' therefore, we may not disturb the award on appeal. Kramer v. Keys, 643 F.2d 382, 386 (5th Cir. Unit A Apr. 1981) (citation omitted). We thus affirm the district court's award of damages for loss of society. 10