A Change In The Fifth Circuit Seaman Status Test?

(October 2021) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently issued an en banc ruling in Sanchez v. Smart Fabricators of Texas, LLC, 997 F.3d 564 (5th Cir. 2021) holding that an offshore welder assigned to a jack-up drilling rig was not a seaman within the meaning of the Jones Act. In its analysis, the court placed particular emphasis on the nature of the offshore worker's assignment to the vessel and the determination of whether the work being performed by the employee was "sea-based" or "seagoing" in nature.

More particularly, the Sanchez court found that the plaintiff did not qualify as a Jones Act seaman because he failed to establish a substantial connection in terms of the nature of his work to the fleet of jack-up barges aboard which he worked. The court explained that because less than 30% of his work on the two vessels was performed away from the dock, he did not satisfy the nature element of the substantiality requirement. In