A federal jury in the Eastern District of Louisiana recently sent a message every deckhand working out of Houma should hear. In Magee v. Florida Marine, LLC, the court awarded roughly $3.3 million net to a deckhand who fell into the river while carrying trash off a vessel — and it broke down exactly why the employer, not the crewman, bore the majority of the fault. I have practiced maritime injury law from my office at 306 Grinage Street for over thirty years, and this decision reads like a checklist of the same negligence patterns I see over and over in the vessels working the Gulf.
According to the reported opinion summarized in a recent Longshore and Maritime Update, the deckhand was tasked with carrying trash bags from the galley to a dumpster ashore. The gangway conditions, lighting, and the crew’s failure to use a safer route to the dumpster were all on the record. He fell into the water and suffered injuries that ended his ability to work the deck. The jury found the employer 65% at fault and the crewman 35%, and it based his wage loss not on a deckhand’s paycheck, but on his likely progression to captain.
The $3.3 million figure is what people talk about at the fuel dock. What I want deckhands to hear is the mechanism behind that number. A Jones Act plaintiff who is early in his career is not stuck being valued as an entry-level crew member. If the evidence shows he was on track to become a mate or a captain — training courses, licensing progression, evaluations, testimony from officers who worked with him — the court can price the lost lifetime of earnings at that higher rung. That is a big deal for the twenty-something crewmen I meet who assume their claim is limited to what a deckhand makes today.
Louisiana state law changed comparative fault rules in 2024, but Jones Act claims are governed by federal maritime law. Under pure comparative fault, an injured seaman can recover even when he shares some of the blame — his recovery is simply reduced by his percentage. In Magee, that 35% reduction cost the crewman more than $1 million on paper. That reality is why every conversation I have with a hurt seaman starts with witness identification, incident-report review, and getting statements before the story shifts. The United States Coast Guard incident file and the vessel’s safety records often tell a very different story than the one the company writes down.
Read your job description. Photograph gangways, lighting, and the route you are told to use for waste, laundry, or supply runs. If your captain or your safety officer sends you across a stretch of deck that is wet, poorly lit, or missing a handrail, that is a live safety complaint — say it out loud, log it in writing, and keep a copy off the boat. Under the Jones Act (46 U.S. Code § 30104) and the general maritime law duty of seaworthiness, an employer’s failure to provide a safe workplace and a safe vessel is the entire ballgame.
Even before we talk about lawsuits, an injured seaman is entitled to maintenance and cure — a daily living stipend and medical treatment until maximum medical improvement. This is nearly automatic. It is also routinely underpaid or cut off early. If a company doctor says you can return to full duty and you know you cannot, that is when a seaman needs a Houma maritime lawyer in his corner. Every offshore worker I represent gets a straight walk-through of what benefits they are owed the day they hire me — see our Houma maritime attorney overview for how those rights fit together.
Federal juries in Louisiana are willing to look past the “trash-run” framing and ask the harder question: what did the vessel operator do to prevent this? When the answer is “not much,” they are increasingly returning verdicts that reflect the full economic life the crewman lost — not just the last paycheck he cashed. The U.S. Department of Transportation maritime statistics continue to show that deckhand and mate injuries make up a disproportionate share of serious inland-waterway incidents, and juries know it.
Do not sign a company statement before you have talked to a Houma offshore injury lawyer. Do not accept a “return to light duty” if your body says otherwise. And do not let anyone tell you a Jones Act case is measured only by what you earn today. My practice has been helping Houma since 1977. If you were hurt on a boat, a barge, or a rig, call our Grinage Street office directly at (985) 851-3311 or reach us through the contact page. I answer the phone. We will talk through what happened and what your rights actually are — no cost, no pressure.
