The issue presented on this appeal is when is a barge that is used as a work platform not a “vessel in navigation” as a matter of law. David Tonnesen sued under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. § 688
et seq.,
and the Long-shore and Harborworkers Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901
et seq.
(“LHWCA”) for injuries sustained while working on a stationary barge, the Weeks 276. The district court granted summary judgment to Yonkers Contracting Co., Inc. and Weeks Marine Inc. (‘Yonkers/Weeks”). The decision on the Jones Act claim was based on the finding that the Weeks 276 was not a “vessel in navigation.” Tonnesen appeals that ruling. Given the deference to jury determinations required in close questions of seaman status under the Jones Act,
see Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis,
— U.S. —, —,
BACKGROUND
Tonnesen was employed by Yonkers/Weeks as a doekbuilder in connection with the construction of a bridge over Jamaica Bay, Queens, New York. On the day of the injury, October 3,1990, Tonnesen was on the Weeks 276 preparing to work on the foundation of the bridge. He was struck by a wooden form that fell from a crane.
The Weeks 276 was constructed as a car float. It had a bow and stern and was equipped with a large crane used in the construction of the bridge. The Weeks 276 had allegedly brought construction supplies to the area where Tonnesen was working. At the time of Tonnesen’s injury, the Weeks 276 was afloat in the navigable waters of Jamaica Bay, but had been rendered temporarily immobile at the work site by steel spuds. The Weeks 276 had no means of self-
DISCUSSION
A plaintiffs entitlement to “seaman” status and hence to the protection of the Jones Act has long been held to depend, in part, on his relationship to a “vessel in navigation.”
See McDermott Int’l, Inc. v. Wilander,
The Jones Act, passed in 1920, provides a cause of action in negligence for “any seaman” injured “in the course of his employment.”
1
46 U.S.C.App. § 688(a). It does not define “seaman,” but leaves to the courts the determination of exactly which maritime workers are entitled to admiralty’s special protection. Early on, following the passage of the Jones Act, the Supreme Court considered the scope of the term “seaman.”
See, e.g., International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty,
In 1991, the Supreme Court, after some thirty years, revisited the frequently litigated definition of “seaman.”
See Wilander, 498
U.S. 337,
Because the answer is fact-specific, the Supreme Court has consigned the question to the jury.
See, e.g., Latsis,
— U.S. at —,
In holding that the Weeks 276 was not a “vessel in navigation” as a matter of law, and granting summaty judgment in favor of Yonkers/Weeks, the district court here relied primarily upon
DiGiovanni v. Traylor Bros., Inc.,
Over a vigorous dissent, the majority purported to follow the Fifth Circuit’s test for what is not a ‘Vessel in navigation” as set forth in
Bernard,
Although the majority quoted
Bernard,
it applied the Fifth Circuit’s test far more restrictively than the Fifth Circuit, or, for that matter, any circuit, ever had.
See DiGiovanni,
We believe the First Circuit substantially altered the Fifth Circuit’s test, and decline to follow its restrictive interpretation of ‘Vessel in navigation.” Instead, we essentially adopt the test as applied by the Fifth Circuit (with a qualification explained below), which we believe is more consistent with the Supreme Court’s insistence on the preservation of a jury trial on reasonably disputed elements of Jones Act claims.
See, e.g., Latsis,
— U.S. at —,
The Fifth Circuit first stated its test in
Cook v. Belden Concrete Products, Inc.,
the determinative factors ... are the purpose for which the craft was constructed and the business in which it is en-gaged_ [A] platform ... not designed for the purpose of navigation[, however,] ... might be classified as a vessel ... if at the time of ... injury it had actually been engаged in navigation.
Cook,472 F.2d at 1001-02 (internal quotation and citation omitted). Cook defined “navigation” as the “transportation of passengers, cargo, or equipment from place to place across navigable waters.” Cook,472 F.2d at 1002 .
Cook
clarified when summary judgment would be appropriate. It explained that a permanent fixation to shore or bottom,
see Cook,
Eleven years later in
Bernard,
the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed the test set forth in
Cook.
It restated that in “evaluating a structure’s status, we consider the purpose for which the craft is constructed and the business in which it is engaged,” but that a structure not constructed for and not engaged in “navigation or commerce across navigable waters may nonetheless satisfy the Jones Act’s vessel requirement if, at the time of the worker’s injury, the structure was actually engaged in navigation.”
Bernard,
Bernard
then surveyed
post-Cook
decisions granting summary judgment on the grounds that the structures at issue were floating work platforms, and not “vessels in navigation” as a matter of lаw. In an attempt to define that rare instance when a court may take a Jones Act claim from the trier of fact,
Bernard
set forth the factors common to these decisions: “(1) the structures involved were constructed and used .primarily as work platforms; (2) they were moored or otherwise secured at the time of the accident; and (3) although they were capable of movement and were sometimes moved across navigable waters in the course of normal operations, any transportation function they performed was merely incidental to their primary purpose of serving as work platforms.”
Bernard,
In subsequent cases where these three factors were present, the Fifth Circuit has upheld summary judgment on the ground that the barge at issue was not “a vessel in navigation” as a matter of law.
See, e.g., Burchett v. Cargill, Inc.,
For example, in
Brunet,
the plaintiff was injured aboard a pile-driving barge that carried a 150-ton crane. The barge had been moved to the job site by tug bpats and had been so moved within the region four times in the six months preceding the accident. At the time of the accident, however, the barge was moored. The district cоurt granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant. The Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the “barge by necessity is designed to transport a pile-driving crane across navigable waters to jobsites that cannot be reached by land-based pile-drivers ... While we agree that the barge was used more often to support the crane than to transport it, we cannot agree that the transportation function was so ‘incidental’ as to warrant a conclusion that the bаrge was not a vessel as a matter of law.”
Brunet,
Brunet,
Sharp and
Ducote
teach that
Cook
and its progeny must be read narrowly to preserve a jury determination on the “vessel in navigation” question where there is some evidence of a transportation function.
3
While we essentially adopt the Fifth Circuit’s test of when a floating structure is a “vessel in navigation,” we depart from that test in one regard. We disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s focus on the
original
purpose for which the structure was constructed,
see Bernard,
As to whether summary judgment was appropriate in this case, the evidence is incomplete and supports competing inferences. The record suggests that, directly preceding the accident, the primary purpose of the Weeks 276 was to serve as a work platform. However, in an affidavit opposing summary judgment, Tonnesen claimed that the Weeks 276 also “help[ed] to bring construction supplies to the area,” though he did not specify when that occurred. 4 The present purpose of the structure cannot therefore be determined as a matter of law, at least not without further factual development.
Regarding the second prоng, if the Weeks 276 were recently used for the transportation of passengers, cargo, or equipment across navigable waters, the fact that it was moored at the time of the accident would not automatically disqualify it from vessel status.
5
See Latsis,
— U.S. at —,
Another factor that distinguishes this case from the Cook line of cases, in which summary judgment was appropriate, is our third prong — whether the Weeks 276’s transportation function was merely incidental to its use as a work platform. The rather sparse record below does not establish whether any transportation function performed by the Weeks 276 was merely incidental to its use as a work platform. Unlike the barges in Burchett and Ducrepont, the Weeks 276 was not permanently moored. There is no dispute that it was moved several times in the weeks preceding the accident and Tonnesen contends that it brought supplies to the site. The record does not reveal, however, the full extent of the purpose of its movement. Like the barge in Brunet, the Weeks 276 may have been used to transport a crane or other equiрment to and around job sites on a regular basis, even though it remained at each site for the duration of a project. The transportation of a crane or other supplies across navigable waters on a regular basis would provide a basis for a jury to conclude that the transportation function was more than merely incidental to the Weeks 276’s use as a work platform.
Or, like the barge in
Ducrepont,
the Weeks 276 may have supported the crane, but not transported it from place to place across navigable waters. Obviously, to accomplish this support function, the structure would necessarily possess the incidental ability to be moved perpendicularly and laterally as “part of [its] regular operation,”
Cook,
In any event, pending that development, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Notes
. The Jones Act provides, in part, that "[a]ny seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply....” 46U.S.C. § 688.
. The Supreme Court recently delved more deeply into the meaning of the first requirement for seaman status, that is, what relationship a worker must have to a vessel to qualify for recovery under the Jones Act.
See Latsis,
— U.S. —,
. In
Sharp,
the plaintiff was the leaderman of a pile-driving crew assignеd to a group of vessels— a tug boat and four deck barges — two of which were used to transport a pile-driving crane to and around jobsites. He was injured when a crane mounted on one of the barges, which was moored at the time, dropped a load of angle iron on him. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants on the Jones Act claim on the ground that the barges were not "vessels in navigation,” because their use in transportation was mеrely incidental to their primary use as work platforms. The Fifth Circuit reversed. It observed that none of the barges was designed as a work platform, and held that transporting a pile-driving crane to and around jobsites was sufficient evidence to support a jury finding that the barge's transportation function was not merely incidental to its work platform function.
Sharp,
In
Ducote,
the plaintiff was injured while driving pilings with a dragline/crane from the deck of a spud barge. The district court ruled that, as a matter of law, the spud barge was not a “vessel in navigation." On appeal, the Fifth Circuit noted that the barge was moored at the time of the accident and there was no dispute that it was used as a platform to support the dragline/crane.
Ducote,
The Court observed, however, that the record was "almost entirely silent” as to the purpose for which the barge had been constructed. It noted the presence of a raked bow as a piece of evidence from which conflicting inferences could be drawn.
Ducote,
. Nor did Tonnesen's affidavit specify whether his employment connection with the Weeks 276 covered the period of time when it performed the transport function. If the Weeks 276 acquired its "vessel in navigation” status by virtue of transport activities it performed prior to Ton-nesen’s connection to it, that would clearly be important to his abilify to meet the test of "employment-related connection" to a vessel in navigation. As stated above in footnote 2, we do not reach thаt question on this appeal.
. It is generally accepted that a vessel does not cease to be a vessel when she is not voyaging, but is at anchor, berthed, or at dockside, even when the vessel is undergoing repairs.
See
Latsis, - U.S. at -,
