Court Awards $1.26 Million to Widow of Offshore Derrick Hand Who Died of Meningitis After Delayed Care
After trial: The Fourth Circuit rendered the award itself in 2002 rather than remanding for a new damages trial. We did not confirm whether a writ application followed or whether the judgment was paid.
Won by Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar LLP and Herman, Katz, Gisleson & Cain.
Robert Labat, a derrick hand on a Mallard Bay Drilling rig, fell ill in December 1999 and was left without medical evaluation until he was found convulsing; he died of bacterial meningitis a week later. The district court ruled for the company. The Louisiana Fourth Circuit reversed in 2002 and itself rendered an award to his widow for his pre-death pain and suffering, lost future earnings and the loss of guidance and support.
What happened
On December 19, 1999, Robert Labat, a derrick hand for Mallard Bay Drilling, got sick on the Mallard Rig 17, a vessel working a well in Lake Washington, Louisiana. He vomited at his station and told his driller. The site sat 30 to 45 minutes by boat from the nearest dock, with no helicopter service. The only first-aid help aboard came from the drillers and toolpushers, who were not doctors.
The next morning he vomited again and asked to be taken to shore. He filled out an illness report listing severe headache, nausea, fever and possibly the flu. A crew boat took him to the dock at Port Sulphur, but he was too ill to make the drive home to Mobile, Alabama, and his wife could not pick him up for another five hours. The toolpusher sent him back to the rig to sleep. Nobody took his temperature, and nobody checked on him once he was isolated aboard. When the driller came to bring him ashore again, he found Mr. Labat naked and convulsing. He was taken by ambulance to a Plaquemines Parish care center, then to Meadowcrest Hospital, where doctors diagnosed bacterial meningitis. He died seven days later.
His widow, Rebecca Labat, sued Mallard Bay for the family under the Jones Act and maritime law, claiming the company failed to get her husband timely medical care. The district court ruled for the company, finding it had not caused or worsened his condition and had not withheld proper maintenance and cure, the duty to see that an ill or injured seaman is treated. The family appealed, represented by James C. Klick and Russ M. Herman of Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar.
The Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit reversed on January 16, 2002. The court held that the duty of maintenance and cure covers a seaman who falls ill as well as one who is hurt, and that the only defense is willful refusal of treatment the employer has actually offered. The record showed no offer of treatment. The court said it found it outrageous to suggest that a seaman 30 to 45 minutes from a medical facility must be naked and convulsing before his employer treats his illness as urgent. It noted that Mallard Bay had no written policy for workers who become ill, and that the plaintiffs' offshore-practices expert had testified that an illness report required the supervisor to arrange medical care. A physician who testified at trial agreed that having Mr. Labat examined by a doctor when he first reached shore would have been reasonable.
Rather than send the case back for a new damages trial, the appellate court rendered its own award after reviewing the record. It allowed $400,000 for the pain Mr. Labat suffered in the week before his death, citing his wife's testimony that he was restrained and medicated in the hospital, and $200,000 for the loss of his guidance and support. It adopted the plaintiffs' economist's calculation of his lost future earnings over the defense economist's, noting that he had recently been promoted to derrick hand and that his two young children depended on his income. The court's stated total was $1,255,833. The judges observed that they could find no earlier case in which a seaman's family recovered after he died of an illness contracted while in service.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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