Opinion ID: 3009853
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Plaintiff Eileen Anne Neely, a young American employed at a Club Med resort in St. Lucia, was seriously injured when she was sucked into the propellers of a scuba diving vessel, the Long John. Plaintiff was a member of the crew of the vessel, which was in St. Lucian coastal waters at the time of the accident. 3 She brought suit in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and a jury there, responding to special interrogatories, found her employers negligent and the vessel unseaworthy, and awarded plaintiff a large verdict on her Jones Act, general maritime law, and maintenance and cure claims. Molding the verdict in response to post-trial motions, the court modified and substantially reduced the verdict by applying to the unseaworthiness claim the percentage of contributory negligence found by the jury with respect to the Jones Act claims. Then, on cross-appeals, a panel of this court, invoking Lauritzen v. Larsen, 345 U.S. 571, 73 S. Ct. 921 (1953), vacated the entire judgment for the plaintiff on the ground that the district court had lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action. We granted rehearing in banc and vacated the panel opinion and judgment. While the appeals present a large number of questions, we address only the subject matter jurisdiction, choice of law, and verdict molding issues.0 With respect to subject matter jurisdiction, we conclude that the multi-factored analysis 0 We find without merit and without need for discussion the defendants’ contentions that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s findings: (1) that defendant Club Med Management employed plaintiff; (2) that defendant Holiday Village was the owner pro hac vice of the Long John; and (3) that the unseaworthy condition of the Long John was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries. The same is true of plaintiff’s contentions: (1) that the district court erred in submitting the issue of her contributory negligence to the jury (on the grounds of insufficient evidence); (2) that the court erred in its charge with respect to the defendants’ denial of certain maintenance payments; and (3) that a new trial should have been granted because of the cumulative effect of discovery rule violations, prejudicial conduct by defense counsel, and “judicial misconduct.” 4 established by Lauritzen, Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., 358 U.S. 354, 79 S. Ct. 468 (1959), and Hellenic Lines Ltd. v. Rhoditis, 398 U.S. 306, 90 S. Ct. 1731 (1970) (together, the “Lauritzen triad”), governs choice of law, not subject matter jurisdiction, in Jones Act and American general maritime law claims. Then, applying the usual analyses for federal question and admiralty jurisdiction, we conclude that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over this suit. Turning our attention to the multi-factored “substantial contacts” test of the Lauritzen triad, we adopt a two-stage interpretation of that test, subjecting the Lauritzen factors to a relatively simple sufficiency test followed by a more involved reasonableness inquiry. We first find American maritime law potentially applicable in this case because the plaintiff is an American citizen. Accordingly, we consider whether applying American law is reasonable under the circumstances. Because the defendants did not inform the district court of the content of St. Lucian law, any interests St. Lucia might have in this case are undefined and, consequently, do little to render application of American law unreasonable. Additionally, in considering the significance of the various Lauritzen factors, we pay heed to the non-traditional context of this suit. By this we do not mean that the vessel involved here was unlike those in traditional, international shipping cases; rather, the activity here was nontraditional, for the Long John did not take its crew from sea to sea in pursuit of international commerce but rather only from beach to reef in aid of scuba diving adventures. 5 The accident occurred in St. Lucian waters, which as we explain is an important consideration in non-shipping contexts. And one of the defendants is a corporation organized under the laws of St. Lucia, a factor that also reflects some interest on the part of St. Lucia in applying its law. But these factors do not mean that American law may not be reasonably applied under the circumstances. Even when we add to these some evidence that the Long John, the vessel that injured plaintiff, was registered in St. Lucia, we cannot conclude that St. Lucia’s interests, whatever they may be, are so threatened or so strong that America’s interests must be ignored. As our opinion explains, the United States has an overriding interest in assuring adequate compensation for its injured seamen. In the non-shipping context of this case, the significance of plaintiff’s American allegiance is an especially important factor, and the relevance of the plaintiff’s having entered into her employment contract in the United States is also enhanced. Conversely, the law of the flag of the Long John is of diminished importance in the non-traditional context, and, at all events, the law of the flag would be entitled to virtually no significance here both because there was no evidence that the Long John actually flew the flag of St. Lucia (or any other nation) and because the district court was presented with no information as to the content of St. Lucian law. Additionally, two of the defendants are American corporations, the Long John was built in America to American specifications, and the St. Lucian defendant, whose operations 6 are in large measure run by one of its affiliated American codefendants, derives the majority of its income from American tourists booked by another affiliated American co-defendant. Because the connections between this incident and the United States implicate significant American interests, and because consideration of all the circumstances confirms the reasonableness of applying United States law, we conclude that the contacts with the United States are “substantial,” and American laws, both the Jones Act and our general maritime law, apply to this suit. We also conclude that the district court erred in molding the verdict to apply the percentage of comparative negligence found by the jury with respect to the Jones Act claim to the unseaworthiness claim. We so hold because the defendants waived the issue, and because the court, which did not submit it to the jury, lacked authority to later make the omitted factual determinations sua sponte. We will therefore affirm the order of the district court holding two of the defendants liable under American law, but will vacate the district court's order of January 26, 1993, and direct it, on remand, to enter judgment for the plaintiff against Club Med Management and Holiday Village in the full amount of damages found by the jury, as more fully explained below.