The U.S. 5th Circuit recently re-addressed the standing law on seaman status in the Circuit in Alexander v. Express Energy Services Operating, L.P., No. 14-30488. In that case, Alexander was injured while working on Express’ P&A crew on an Apache platform. As a member of the P&A crew, his job was to ensure that
offshore injury
Eastern District of Louisiana Judge: Punitive Damages are Unavailable to Plaintiffs Injured on the Outer Continental Shelf as a Matter of Law
By Tod Everage on
In 1953, Congress passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”), 43 U.S.C. 1333, et seq. to provide a set of “comprehensive choice-of-law rules and federal regulation to a wide range of activity occurring beyond the territorial waters of the states on the outer continental shelf of the United States.” Important in OCS personal…
Failure by One Plaintiff (Out of Four) in Consolidated Litigation to Adequately Plead Admiralty Jurisdiction Lost Bench Trial for All
By Tod Everage on
Posted in Admiralty and Maritime, Energy
An offshore helicopter crash resulted in four lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana that were eventually consolidated for all purposes. Three of the four plaintiffs properly asserted that their cases fell under admiralty jurisdiction and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(h). FRCP 9 governs the pleading of special matters, and subsection (h) addresses…