366
Opinion of the Court
"[T]here is an evidentiary basis for a Jones Act case to go to the jury: (1) if there is evidence that the injured workman was assigned permanently to a vessel . . . or performed a substantial part of his work on the vessel; and (2) if the capacity in which he was employed or the duties which he performed contributed to the function of the vessel or to the accomplishment of its mission, or to the operation or welfare of the vessel in terms of its maintenance during its movement or during anchorage for its future trips." Id., at 779 (footnote omitted).
Soon after Robison, the Fifth Circuit modified the test to allow seaman status for those workers who had the requisite connection with an "identifiable fleet" of vessels, a finite group of vessels under common ownership or control. Braniff v. Jackson Avenue-Gretna Ferry, Inc., 280 F. 2d 523, 528 (1960). See also Barrett, 781 F. 2d, at 1074; Bertrand v. International Mooring & Marine, Inc., 700 F. 2d 240 (CA5 1983), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 1069 (1984). The modified Robison formulation, which replaced the Carumbo version as the definitive test for seaman status in the Fifth Circuit, has been highly influential in other courts as well. See Robertson 95; Miller v. Patton-Tully Transp. Co., 851 F. 2d 202, 204 (CA8 1988); Caruso v. Sterling Yacht & Shipbuilders, Inc., 828 F. 2d 14, 15 (CA11 1987); Bennett v. Perini Corp., 510 F. 2d 114, 115 (CA1 1975).
While the Carumbo and Robison approaches may not
seem all that different at first glance, subsequent developments in the Fifth Circuit's Jones Act jurisprudence added a strictly temporal gloss to the Jones Act inquiry. Under Barrett v. Chevron, U. S. A., Inc., supra, if an employee's regular duties require him to divide his time between vessel and land, his status as a crew member is determined "in the context of his entire employment" with his current employer. Id., at 1075. See also Allbritton, 68 Tulane L. Rev., at 386; Longmire, 610 F. 2d, at 1347 (explaining that a worker's seaman status "should be addressed with reference to the na-
Page: Index Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007