A seafarer is suing CMA CGM after accusing a chief engineer of battering a corker with a wrench and sexually harassing them on a US-flag container ship operated by the French liner giant.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after John Frederick Daylor agreed to surrender his mariner’s licence to end a separate case before a US Coast Guard judge over the same allegations.
The seafarer, who worked as a third engineer on the 1,638-teu CMA CGM Gulf Express (built 2002) when the events at the heart of the dispute took place in 2022 and 2023, filed the lawsuit in a US federal court in San Francisco against the container ship operator, several affiliates and Daylor.
The third engineer is pursuing CMA CGM and its affiliates over claims of negligence, unseaworthiness and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The French liner operator did not respond to TradeWinds’ request for comment.
Daylor, who could not be reached for comment, is facing claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and battery.
Coast Guard investigators fired an opening salvo against Daylor at the end of July, when they filed papers before the agency’s administrative law judge system seeking to revoke his licence on allegations of misconduct, violating assault and battery laws, and sexual harassment.
Coast Guard investigating officer Mathew Schirle wrote in Coast Guard documents that Daylor violated US law regarding assault and battery.
Schirle alleged that Daylor stood behind the third engineer while he worked with an adjustable wrench and struck the engine room crewman on the side of the head with another wrench.
The third engineer’s lawyers with Los Angeles firm Nelson & Fraenkel also described the incident in their lawsuit.
“Instead of handing the wrench to plaintiff, defendant chief engineer John Frederick Daylor during the course and scope of his employment and agency relationship with defendants, struck plaintiff forcefully in the side of plaintiff’s head three times in quick succession,” they wrote.
Then in January of 2023, the chief engineer allegedly grabbed the third engineer by the arm and forcefully pulled him close to him, yelling aggressively, the Coast Guard investigator said in a second count of violation of law in the complaint.
The investigator wrote that these alleged violations were aggravated by the fact that in January of last year APL fired Daylor because he “continued his behaviour of harassment, bullying and physical contact with crew members” in a way that created a hostile work environment.
Other incidents against a male engine room crew member, revealed in the federal lawsuit as the third engineer, led to the sexual harassment complaint. Both the Coast Guard and the third engineer’s lawyers accused Daylor of making unwelcome sexual comments towards the crew member during a discussion of new US requirements for ships to have cameras in common areas to help prevent rape at sea.
“That’s too bad for us, the longer [his] hair gets every day, the more rapeable he looks,” Daylor allegedly said of the third engineer, according to the lawsuit against him and CMA CGM. Daylor, the seafarer’s direct supervisor, also allegedly told him that the chief engineer was in the gym to watch his behind while he exercised, in addition to other unwelcome comments “of a sexual nature”, according to the Coast Guard complaint obtained by TradeWinds.
The misconduct charge stems from Coast Guard allegations involving a second engineer in June 2022, according to the document. After the second engineer told Daylor he was looking for a tool, the chief engineer allegedly grabbed the him and dragged him across the CMA CGM Gulf Express’ workshop to the location where the tool was located. Schirle told the Coast Guard judge that that was a violation of policy at APL Maritime, the CMA CGM unit that employed Daylor and the two alleged victims.
Ryan Melogy, a lawyer who runs Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy and who represented the third engineer in the Coast Guard case, pointed out that alleged behaviour that led to the accusation of misconduct happened before the alleged battery of his client.
“If he was actually under investigation, if he was actually reported, why was he allowed to just abuse my client in this open, flagrant manner?” the lawyer asked.
Melogy said that while sexual harassment is garnering increased attention in shipping, he believes instances of bullying are underreported in the industry.
Daylor did not file an official response to the Coast Guard complaint.
Documents show that on 14 August, the agency withdrew the case because Daylor agreed to surrender his licence voluntarily. But Daylor’s legal troubles did not end there. Nelson & Fraenkel filed the lawsuit against Daylor and CMA CGM just over three weeks later on behalf of the third engineer, who had graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 2021. TradeWinds does not publish the names of alleged victims of sexual harassment.
In addition to describing a variety of other situations in which Daylor made comments of a sexual nature, Nelson & Fraenkel claimed CMA CGM companies knew the chief engineer had subjected other crew members under his supervision to “relentless, intimidating and damaging harassment” and physical and emotional abuse, legal documents alleged.