Am I covered under the Jones Act?

As a Corpus Christi Jones Act lawyer, I am often asked about the use and origin of this statute. Maritime common law failed to provide a seaman a cause of action against his employer for damages caused by the negligence of co-employees. Congress remedied this by adopting the Jones Act, which states, in part:

Since the Jones Act is remedial legislation, it is liberally construed to accomplish its beneficent purposes and thus is an extremely effective method of recovery for work-related accidents.

Jones Act cases relax the standard of proximate cause between the wrongful act and the injury imposed by the general maritime law and shoreside tort law. The Jones Act requires a more lenient standard of "legal cause", which does not require that a negligent act be the sole proximate cause of an injury to result in liability, but only that it contributed even in the slightest degree to the injury. Legal cause under the FELA is established when an employer’s negligence plays "any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury or death for which damages are sought." This same rule applies to Jones Act cases.

The "course of employment" criterion of 46 U.S.C.A. Section 688 is liberally construed. The criterion is deemed met if the activity in which the seaman was involved was related to his duties or his living arrangements aboard ship.

There is a three-year statute of limitations on Jones Act claims. However, the employer may be estopped from asserting the defense if it has misled the seaman into withholding suit, by conduct such as active misrepresentation of the seaman’s rights, or a promise to pay or settle the claim if the seaman foregoes legal action.

Contact our Texas Jones Act attorney Scott Nelson if you need help with a maritime matter.  Mr. Nelson represents clients in Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Galveston, and throughout Texas.