Case at a glance
- Result: Confidential Settlement
- Practice: Maritime Injury Law
- Attorney: Vuk Vujasinovic
A line snapped across the deck
Travis began work for Top Coat, an offshore fabrication company, as a land-based pipefitter. About six months later, the company assigned him to the M/V San Jacinto. His duties included keeping welding and mooring lines from tangling or sustaining damage.
On March 11, 2010, he monitored the mooring lines and taped down welding lines on the deck. A mooring line snapped back and struck his abdomen, badly injuring his spleen. The impact also threw him backward onto the deck and injured his neck.
Travis underwent trauma surgery to repair his abdominal injuries after his evacuation from the vessel.
Top Coat disputed his maritime status
After the injury, Travis struggled with back pain, stabbing pain and numbness in his leg. He could not perform the light-duty job Top Coat offered and eventually quit. His unpaid medical bills approached $90,000.
Top Coat denied his injury claim, pointing to his original land-based employment. Travis later hired Vuk to pursue the case. Vuk investigated Travis’s work aboard the vessel and filed a lawsuit asserting that he qualified for Jones Act protection as a maritime employee.
His assignment aboard the San Jacinto and the work he performed there formed the basis of that dispute. Top Coat’s position focused on the job for which it had originally hired him.
Two inspections addressed the vessel’s condition
Vuk worked with a maritime expert who inspected the San Jacinto and reviewed vessel records. The expert identified failures in training and supervision and the absence of warning barriers around the mooring lines. Those opinions addressed the operation that placed Travis near a line under tension.
Top Coat’s own maritime surveyor inspected the vessel in July 2010. He described poor conditions aboard the San Jacinto and identified the area of Travis’s injury as a location that needed repairs.
The surveyor testified that the vessel’s condition could have contributed to the mooring line’s failure. He also linked those conditions to the welding lines’ need for constant attention. His testimony addressed the work Travis had been doing when the line struck him.
Medical needs and a negotiated resolution
Travis’s doctors said he might need neck surgery if his neck did not heal on its own. They estimated that future medical care could cost $295,000.
In July 2011, about nine months after Travis hired Vuk, Top Coat agreed to a confidential settlement. Travis went on to study construction management and chose a focus on safety, drawing on his experience of an injury at work.
Tell Us What Happened
Read about maritime injury law and Jones Act claims. Another vessel-equipment injury case involved Josh D.’s hand injury from a mooring hook.
To discuss an injury, Tell Us What Happened or call (877) 724-7800.
Case questions
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