Are All Floating Structures Vessels? An Analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court´s Holding in Stewart v. Dutra Construction Company

Author

Showalter, J.D.S.

Author_Institution

Nat. Sea Grant Law Center, Mississippi Univ., MS

fYear

2006

fDate

18-21 Sept. 2006

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

On February 22, 2005, the U.S Supreme Court, in Stewart v. Dutra Construction Company, held that a dredge is a "vessel" under the Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (LHWCA). While the dredge in question had only limited means of self-propulsion, the Supreme Court found that it was "practically capable of maritime transportation". The Court\´s new test for determining vessel status expands the range of floating structures that can be considered vessels under the LHWCA and the Jones Act. This paper will discuss the impact of the Supreme Court\´s decision and subsequent lower court rulings on offshore operations

Keywords

law; marine systems; shipbuilding industry; ships; AD 2005 02 22; Dutra Construction Company; Jones Act; LHWCA; Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act; Supreme Court´s decision impact; US Supreme Court; floating structures; maritime transportation; offshore operations; vessel status; Circuits; Employment; Injuries; Maintenance engineering; Mechanical systems; Navigation; Nominations and elections; Sediments; Testing; Transportation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS 2006

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0114-3

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0115-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.2006.307055

Filename

4098874