[B]Date Decided[/B]: Aug 26th, 2010
[B]Decided By[/B]: Alabama Southern District Court (Federal)
[B]Court[/B]: S.D.Ala.
[B]Citation[/B]: 2010 WL 3419998
[B]Background[/B]:
Plaintiff, a seaman, sustained injuries when he fell from aladder attached to a barge. As aresult, the seaman needed a total knee replacement. The ladder’s rungs were too close together, and there was animpediment in front of the ladder, which required the seaman to climb onto theladder from a sharp angle. Theseaman brought suit under the general maritime law and the Jones Act. The seaman claimed that the barge’sladder, and the positioning of the ladder on the barge created an unseaworthycondition. Allegedly, thisunseaworthy condition was the cause of his injuries. Defendant, the seaman’s employer, denied that the ladder wasthe cause. Instead, the defendantalleged that the plaintiff’s own negligence caused his injury because theplaintiff concealed a pre-existing injury, a knee injury. Plaintiff sustained a torn ACL in hisknee some years before his employment with the defendant. Defendant alleged that plaintiff’s fallfrom the ladder was actually caused by plaintiff’s bad knee giving out on theladder. Read More…