442 F.2d 1196 - Rogers v. Gracey-Hellums Corp. — 442 F.2d 1196

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently May 2021

8 federal appellate · 2 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

¶1Donald G. Cave, Baton Rouge, La., for plaintiff-appellant.

¶2Charles J. Hanemann, Jr., O’Neal, Henderson, Hanemann & Morris, Hou-ma, La., for Gracey-Hellums Corp. and Argonaut Ins. Co.

¶3Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, and TUTTLE and THORNBER-RY, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM:

¶5This appeal from a judgment in favor of the “seaman” in this Jones Act ease, based on allegations of negligence and unseaworthiness raises only fact questions. The successful plaintiff complains of the finding by the trial court that his “gross negligence” accounted for 66%% of the cause of his serious injury. Negligence findings are peculiarly fact findings and they cannot be disturbed on appeal unless we conclude that they are clearly erroneous, or that the trial court manifestly used an improper standard. We find no application of an improper standard, and we are simply unable to find that the allocation of fault was clearly erroneous.

¶6The failure of the trial court to find the “vessel” (in fact a drilling tower) unseaworthy was, if error, harmless because the rule of contributory negligence would, as applied by the court here, leave the parties in precisely the same positions as they now find themselves in — 33%% negligence to be charged to the vessel and 66%% to the plaintiff.

¶7The appeal by the defendant below is without merit, since it also goes solely to the fact findings by the trial court.

¶8The judgment is affirmed.