Federal: Offshore Oil Platform Not a Vessel; No Longshore Benefits Due for Injury

An offshore oil platform nicknamed “Big Foot” was not a “vessel” since it had no means of self-propulsion, had no steering mechanism or rudder, and had an unraked bow, held the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Noting also that the platform could only be moved by being towed through the water, and that when towed to its permanent location, it would not carry cargo, the court affirmed denial of benefits under the Longshore Act. The court added that the worker’s injury occurred on dry land while he helped in building the living and dining quarters for the oil platform. This did not satisfy the fact-specific test, since the worker did not establish a significant casual link between the injury that he suffered and his employer’s on-outer continental shelf (OCS) operations conducted for the purpose of extracting natural resources from the OCS.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Baker v. Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15297 (5th Cir., August 19, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 145.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law