As a final follow up on our previous posts (here and here) monitoring Meche v. Doucet’s progression through the court system, we report that on October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court denied writs. As previously reported, in Meche, 777 F.3d 237 (5th Cir. Jan. 22, 2015), the Fifth Circuit expanded
When a maritime casualty or accident occurs, it must be determined whether the occurrence meets the criteria for notifying the Coast Guard. Note that a “marine casualty or accident” is purposefully defined broadly in governmental regulations to capture a wide variety of occurrences. Indeed, the statutes and regulations pertinent to marine casualties and accidents provide
On May 26, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a new website to provide the public and industry interests with nationally-issued Notices To Navigation Interests (NTNI). The new website can be found here. The new site allows users to search NTNIs by keywords, providing a new-user friendly interface. The site will keep navigation
As we recently reported, the Fifth Circuit decided the case of Meche v. Doucet, 777 F.3d 237 (5th Cir. Jan. 22, 2015) earlier this year. At issue in the Meche case was a well-founded and widely adopted defense to an employer’s obligation to pay maintenance and cure to an injured seaman – the
On May 18, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court considered then denied the Writ of Certiorari filed by Petitioner, Haleigh McBride, who sought to have the U.S. 5th Circuit’s En Banc Opinion in favor of Estis Well Service reversed. See McBride v. Estis Well Service, LLC, 768 F.3d 382 (5th Cir. 2014). The writ denial
Judge Ivan Lemelle of the Eastern District of Louisiana re-affirmed the U.S. 5th Circuit’s holding in Amoco Transport Co. v. S/S Mason Lykes, 768 F.2d 659 that the long-standing exclusionary doctrine from Robins Dry Dock v. Flint, 275 U.S. 303, 48 S. Ct. 134 (1927), does not apply when a damaged party shifts some of
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
On Thursday, March 26, 2015, Petróleos Mexicanos (Mexico’s national oil company better known as Pemex), BlackRock Inc., and First Reserve Corp announced a major investment project that will bring U.S. natural gas to central Mexico. This $900 million USD transaction represents the first large scale infrastructure investment in Mexico since its energy sector was
The Limitation of Liability Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30501 et seq., is a special protection available to a vessel owner (and in some instances vessel charterers) whose vessel allegedly caused damage to persons or property. When certain elements are satisfied, a vessel owner can limit total liability to the value of the vessel and
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