In a recent opinion Judge Susie Morgan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the court highlighted the importance of retaining the proper expert in cases involving specialized offshore activities, like crane operations.
In Richardson v. Seacor Liftboats, LLC, C/A 14-1712, 2015 WL 4397134 (E.DLa. Aug. 17, 2015) the plaintiff alleged he was injured during a personnel basket transfer. The Plaintiff testified at trial the basket he was riding was dropped in a eight to ten foot freefall to the deck of a crew boat. The Plaintiff further claimed that after the fall the basket was jerked back up before he could fully disembark and one of his legs was lifted up to his chest level, resulting injuries to his hip and back. Prior to landing on the deck, Plaintiff admitted he took one foot off of the basket, but claimed he was trained to do so in order to brace the landing. The crane operator had a different recollection of the transfer. He testified it was customary and prudent to stop the personnel basket four to six feet above the deck in order to evaluate the sea conditions and then begin lowering the basket as the vessel crests a sea swell so that the basket lowers onto the deck as the vessel descends into the trough of the wave. During this particular transfer, the crane operator stopped the basket several feet above the deck as he always did but the vessel rose on a swell, decreasing the gap to one to two feet. At that time Plaintiff took one foot off of the basket and attempted to step onto the deck before the basket landed. As the Plaintiff stepped off, the vessel descended into the trough of the wave, causing the gap to increase. The crane operator then slacked off the cable in order to get the basket onto the deck as quickly as possible and keep the Plaintiff from falling from a dangerous height. Once the crane operator lowered the basket to the deck, he never lifted it again until the Plaintiff had retrieved his bag and exited the basket.
During the trial, both Plaintiff and Seacor offered experts to testify as to proper procedure during a personnel basket transfer. Plaintiff’s expert claimed that industry standards called for lowering the basket onto the deck as the vessel was rising in a swell, so that the basket reaches the deck once the vessel was in the crest. Plaintiff’s expert also claimed the proper method of training is to teach personnel to keep one foot off of the basket as it approaches the deck, though he admitted the industry best practice was for the rider to remain fully aboard the basket until it reaches the deck. Seacor’s expert on the other hand opined that the proper way to train riders is to tell them to keep both feet on the basket until it reaches the deck. Moreover, Seacor’s expert disagreed with Plaintiff’s as to the method of landing the personnel basket on the deck. Seacor’s expert testified that if the basket were landed on the deck at the crest of a wave as Plaintiff’s expert had suggested, the deck may come out from beneath the basket as the vessel descended into the trough of a waive. It was therefore more prudent to land the basket as the crane operator had done, by lowering it to the deck as the vessel descends into the trough.
In the end, Judge Morgan sided with the testimony of Seacor’s expert because he had worked as crane operator for many years and had trained in excess of 800 crane operators and 300 to 400 riggers. Plaintiff’s expert’s only relevant experience was working as a crane operator more than thirty years prior. He frequently testified in a wide variety of safety cases and the safety of crane personnel basket transfers was not his primary area of expertise. Judge Morgan ruled Seacor’s crane operator acted in accordance with industry standards and was in no way negligent. The court found the sole cause of the incident was Plaintiff’s unsafe decision to take one foot off of the basket and attempt to step onto the deck before the basket had landed.
The Richardson decision underscores the importance of retaining liability experts with the proper background and experience in cases involving specialized offshore operations. In cases involving cranes, we always recommend selecting a liability expert with an extensive background in crane operation and training.
Author: Tripp Dubose