The Jones Act and Recovery from Damages Caused by Asbestos
The Jones Act, a federal law that governs maritime commerce and protects the rights of seamen, is originally codified in 1920 as 46 U.S.C. section 688, and later re-codified as U.S.C. Section 3010 in 2006. The Jones Act provides that a shipowner has a duty to use care to ensure that a seaman has a safe place to work. Seamen who are injured have the right to recover under the Jones Act, as long as it can be proven that their injury was due to employer’s negligence, no matter how slight. Liability under the Jones Act attaches if the employer knew or should have known of the dangerous condition on the vessel that caused or contributed to the injury.
Under the Seaworthiness Doctrine, a shipowner has a non-delegable duty to provide a ship that is reasonably safe, including workplaces and equipment on the vessel. Non-delegable means that the shipowner can not assign responsibility for lack of safety or injury to another party. The legal is absolute and requires the shipowner to furnish a vessel and equipment that are reasonably fit for their intended use.
A vessel’s condition of unseaworthiness may arise from a number of circumstances, including defective or unsafe equipment on the ship. The shipowner’s actual or constructive knowledge of an unseaworthy condition is not required to establish liability. The employer is strictly liable if the plaintiff can show that the unseaworthy condition was a substantial factor in causing the injury.
Between approximately the 1940s and early 1980s, numerous asbestos-containing products were used in the construction, maintenance and repair of ships, including cargo ships used by maritime shipping employers. These asbestos-containing products included boiler insulation, pipe insulation, cements, cloth, tape, gaskets, packing, floor tile and decking. Most of these products were handled, removed and installed in the engine rooms, boiler rooms and machinery spaces of the ships by various workers employed by the shipowners including oilers, wipers, boiler tenders, machinists and laggers.
The removal, installation and handling of these asbestos-containing products aboard the ships by these workers caused the release of unsafe levels of respirable asbestos fiber and dust from the products into the workplace air of the ships, thereby contaminating the air with hazardous levels of asbestos. Decades after such exposure, seamen ran the risk of developing cancer, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer, and a serious ailment called asbestosis.
The maritime shipping industry, including Exxon / Seariver Maritime, Inc., Chevron Shipping, Matson Navigation Company, and American President Lines was aware of the hazards associated with asbestos exposure as early as the 1950s, and knew how to prevent health risks from asbestos by, among other things, furnishing employees with masks or respirators, utilizing wet-down procedures, and other known safety precautions.
Most maritime shipping companies failed to implement these safeguards until the 1980s, thereby negligently failing to provide reasonably safe workplaces aboard the ships, and failing to provide seaworthy ships which were free from defective products, causing their employees to be exposed to unsafe levels of asbestos during their employment aboard the ships.
If you have prior ship building or repair work history and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you are eligible to obtain compensation through the Jones Act and should contact our asbestos law firm to help you recover damages from those that failed to provide a safe work environment.
