Lavern D. Bonin v. Ryan Marine Services, Inc

[B]Date Decided[/B]: Feb 17[SUP]th[/SUP], 2011
[B]Decided By[/B]: U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (Federal)
[B]Court[/B]: United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
[B]Citation[/B]: 2011 WL 573520
[B]Background[/B]:
Plaintiff Lavern D. Bonin (“Bonin”) brought claims against his employer, Ryan Marine Services, Inc. (“Ryan Marine”) alleging injuries under the general maritime law, and the Jones Act.

Bonin was employed by Ryan Marine as a deckhand on board the M/V RMS CITATION (“the vessel”). In the course of detaching the vessel from a work platform located on the shore, Captain Bill Cox (“Captain Cox”) ordered Bonin and another deckhand to retrieve a mooring line securing the vessel’s anchor cable to a cable attached to the platform. Bonin claimed that while attempting to carry out Captain Cox’s order, he injured his left shoulder and can no longer work as a deckhand.

The district court held that Captain Cox was negligent in ordering Bonin to retrieve the mooring line thereby creating an unseaworthy vessel which caused Bonin’s injury, and awarded him 200,000 dollars in damages.

Ryan Marine appealed the district court’s ruling alleging there was insufficient evidence to conclude (1) Captain Cox was negligent; (2) that Captain Cox’s negligence was the proximate cause of Bonin’s injury; and (3) that Bonin was entitled to 200,000 dollars in damages.
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