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Kerr-McGee Corp. v. Ma-Ju Marine Services

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
830 F.2d 1332 (1987)

Written by Daniel Clark, JD

Facts

Kerr-McGee Corporation (defendant) owned several platforms on a gas field off the Louisiana coast. Kerr-McGee employed Dorothy Lyons (plaintiff) as a switcher whose job was to perform tests to ensure that the oil and gas were flowing properly at the platform sites. Kerr-McGee time-chartered boats from Ma-Ju Marine Services, Inc. (Ma-Ju) to transport workers such as Lyons around the gas field. Following industry custom, each boat had a crew of solely its captain, and the maintenance and safety of each boat was delegated to Ma-Ju. While Lyons was descending a slippery staircase with no railing aboard a chartered Ma-Ju boat, the boat lurched, causing Lyons to fall and suffer injuries. Lyons received workers’-compensation benefits from Kerr-McGee under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Later, among other actions, Lyons filed a negligence action against Kerr-McGee pursuant to § 905(b) of the act. The district court sustained Lyons’s negligence claim, and Kerr-McGee appealed.

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Holding and Reasoning (Garwood, J.)

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