Category Archives: Maritime & Offshore Injury

The ill-fated Carnival Cruise ship Triumph has been docked in Mobile, Alabama while investigators piece together the cause of the fire that left the ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard announced Monday afternoon that a leaking fuel-oil return line running from one of the ship’s engines was the cause of the fire but it is not known what caused the leak.

After four days of aimlessly drifting, the ship was towed to a port in Mobile where all passengers were provided travel to New Orleans and Houston. Litigation has already been filed by several passengers relying on maritime law to cover their experience. In addition to claims by passengers, however, the Jones Act is the federal law that governs claims that seamen and cruise ship employees may have for injuries they sustained in the course of their service on the vessel. Many of the workers aboard a vessel such as Triumph are employed to perform the same tasks as hotel and restaurant workers on land. These types of industries are often injury prone due to the nature of the work.

The reported conditions onboard the ship include health and safety hazards for crewmembers continuing to work in the scope of their employment. Passengers reported slippery walkways, lack of food and potable water and sewage soaked carpets. Carnival has not announced plans for compensation for the crew, nor disclosed what injuries staff members might have suffered.

The Jones Act lawyers at Doyle LLP have handled a number of claims against the cruise industry for created an unsafe work environment for cruise ship workers.

Doyle has filed a negligence lawsuit against T&T Marine Salvage and Titan Maritime on behalf of a worker who was thrown 30 feet in the air and dropped on the beach landing on his back.

The plaintiff was an employee of T&T Salvage in Texas and the company sent him to Chile to work on the salvage of a grounded vessel offshore Puerto San Antonio. While on the shore operating a winch to unload cargo from the ship, the line on the winch broke. A cable from the vessel en-wrapped the plaintiff’s leg and body and launched him into the air.

After landing on the beach, he was rushed to the hospital where a pain shot was administered and the plaintiff was released. He was taken to a motel for three days without pain medication while waiting for a flight back to Texas. The plaintiff was taken directly from the airport to an urgent care clinic chosen by T&T Salvage where a pulled muscle was diagnosed, light duty and painkillers were prescribed. The plaintiff sought an independent physician who diagnosed two protruding discs in his back after review of a MRI.

T&T Salvage negligently failed to provide safe, properly maintained equipment and work facilities for the plaintiff’s use to carry out his job duties.  The company also failed to provide proper training and supervision. Managers of T&T Salvage and Titan Maritime had obligations to safety they failed to uphold by proceeding with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of the plaintiff despite having awareness of the risk involved.

Doyle stands behind this client in their fight for justice and accountability for his injury and inability to work.

A Doyle client has been awarded a unanimous $9.6 million jury verdict against Diamond Offshore Services.  The plaintiff was employed by Diamond Offshore on a semi-submersible drilling vessel, OCEAN LEXINGTON, as a drilling worker in January 2008 when he was injured while offshore Egypt.

The plaintiff is a Mississippi resident and was working for the Houston-based Diamond Offshore Services as a mechanical supervisor.  He was ordered to unsafely repair a set of elevators, used to lift pipe into the drilling operations, to avoid a shutdown of the drilling operations being conducted for BP.  Diamond Offshore’s failure to have sufficient elevator spares onboard, as well as its failure to properly maintain its equipment in a safe and seaworthy manner, created an unnecessary emergency situation and directly led to his career-ending back injury.  The jury found that Diamond Offshore’s vessel was unseaworthy and its operational negligence was also responsible for Mr. Williams’ injuries.

Michael Patrick Doyle was lead trial lawyer and said, “Diamond Offshore promises a comprehensive safety program, at least on paper, but the jury’s verdict confirms, in practice, that Diamond Offshore is ready to jettison these critical equipment and operational standards to avoiding jeopardizing any shutdown financial penalties. The jury’s verdict supports the evidence of the company’s willingness to expose its own employees, rig and the environment to potentially disastrous consequences.”

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Baker Hughes Inc., the Houston- based oilfield services company, reported the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by 12 this week to 1,754.

Of the more than 1,700 rigs, 1,383 were exploring for oil and 365 for gas. A year ago, there were 1,806 rigs. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.

This report was issued the same week the company suspended operations in Iraq following a weekend protest.

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas increasing also brings an increase in injuries and fatalities. Every year hundreds of workers are injured; some are able to navigate the system and receive proper compensation and medical care while many are not.

Admiralty law is designed with provisions to take care of an injured seaman. Maintenance and cure is the doctrine of paying an injured seaman’s medical care while also ensuring long-term health while providing financial payment while he is unable to work. Vessel owners are required to provide maintenance and cure; injured seamen have legal recourse if this does not happen.  When a maritime employer’s negligence results in an injury, a seaman may also maintain a lawsuit under the Jones Act.  The Jones Act protects maritime families by providing an avenue for recovery of future medical expenses, lost wage earning capacity, and all of the emotional and family harms that result from an offshore injury.

For more information about the rights injured offshore workers have regarding unpaid medical costs, please click here.

Via scandoil.com and 4-traders.com

Doyle LLP has filed a Jones Act lawsuit against Texas Crewboats on behalf of a seaman injured near Puerto Rico.

The plaintiff was a deckhand aboard the vessel when asked in the scope of his employment to perform tasks without the proper equipment and with insufficient assistance.  Due to the unseaworthiness of the vessel, he slipped resulting in a torn meniscus which requires surgical intervention. The plaintiff was working aboard an aluminum crew-supply vessel at the time of his injury.

Due to the injury, the plaintiff is owed maintenance and cure which he has not received. Texas Crewboats was responsible for the dangerous and defective condition of the vessel. Their negligence resulted in the plaintiff’s injury.

Doyle stands behind this offshore worker in their fight against a negligent company and the resulting lack of obligation to an injured seaman. If you or someone you love has been injured in an offshore incident, please contact the attorneys at Doyle.