Seaman falls from vessel’s crane, sues for injuries

A seaman is suing the U.S. government for injuries he sustained when he allegedly fell last September from a crane’s ladder and dropped to the deck of a vessel that was anchored off the Commonwealth.

Randall J. Brown is suing the United States in the U.S. District Court for the NMI for Jones Act negligence and for the alleged unseaworthiness of its vessel, USNS Major Stephen W. Pless, one of the prepositioned ships off the Saipan lagoon.

Brown, through counsels Bruce Berline and William Fitzgerald, is demanding unspecified damages, court costs, and interest.

For the past 18 months, the lawyers said, Brown has worked, and presently works, as a seaman aboard Pless, providing critical maintenance and work on the vessel.

On Sept. 26, 2011, Brown was ordered to work on the vessel’s crane that required him to ascend the crane’s ladder. Berline and Fitzerald said that the ladder did not have a safety cage around it, and had narrow rungs with sharp edges.

As Brown was descending the crane’s ladder, his boot allegedly became snagged in the ladder’s lower rung, causing him to fall a short distance onto the vessel’s deck below the crane’s ladder.

The vessel’s deck, including the portion of the deck below and around the crane’s ladder, was wet due to rain that day. The lawyers said that the vessel’s deck and around the crane ladder’s landing area did not have any non-skid materials on it.

That same day, a portion of the vessel’s deck-around and below the crane’s ladder-had been recently painted. Thus, the lawyers said, the deck area underneath and around the crane’s ladder was unsafe and slippery.

When Brown fell from the crane’s ladder, he landed on his feet but because the vessel’s deck lacked sufficient grip, he slipped on the unsafe deck.

“As a result, Brown suffered severe injury to his right knee, including, without limitation, injury to his medical collateral ligament and his meniscus, severe swelling and various contusions,” the lawyers said. Brown also allegedly sustained various bruises and swelling on his body.

Brown’s injuries, Berline and Fitzgerald said, required and continues to require medical attention and physical therapy.

The lawyers asserted that Brown’s injuries were also caused by the vessel’s unseaworthy condition as the vessel or part of the vessel, its gear, equipment and/ or crew, its deck and/or the crane’s ladder, were not reasonably fit for their intended purposes.

International Shipholding Corp. and its subsidiaries, Waterman Steamship Corp. and LMS Shipmanagement Inc., operate the Pless under time-charter with the Military Sealift Command.

Brown was hired by LMS Shipmanagement Inc. as a seaman assigned to serve as a member of the crew aboard the Pless.