Firm Successfully Defends Shipowner

Firm Successfully Defends Shipowner in Personal Injury Case Filed by a River Pilot

On January 26, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a June 19, 2017 summary judgment granted by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in favor of a shipowner in a personal injury case filed by a river pilot. The pilot, who had bilateral hip replacements in 2009, claimed in his lawsuit that he injured his left hip in 2016 while boarding a ship using a combination ladder (a combination of a Jacob’s ladder and an accommodation ladder). He underwent left hip revision surgery one month after his alleged accident.

While the pilot testified that he injured his left hip climbing the combination ladder, when he saw his orthopedist four days after the alleged accident (during an appointment that had been scheduled before the alleged accident), he reported that he had left hip clicking and pain that developed gradually two months earlier. He did not mention that he injured his hip while boarding a ship four days earlier.

Since the medical issue of whether the pilot’s left hip injury and revision surgery were caused by the normal progression or wear of his artificial hip or instead caused by trauma is complex and not within the common knowledge of a lay person, the pilot was required to prove medical causation with expert medical testimony. Significantly, none of the doctors who examined the pilot after the alleged accident testified that his left hip injury and revision surgery were, more likely than not, caused by boarding the ship. Thus, the pilot was unable to prove medical causation, an essential element of his claim, and the Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment.

Link to case