High Court to Review Case of S.D. Shipyard Worker

The Supreme Court, a week after broadening the legal definition of who’s a seaman with the right to sue an allegedly negligent employer, agreed Monday to decide whether a San Diego shipyard worker has the right to have a jury say if he fits the definition.

The justices said they will review a ruling that gave Byron Gizoni the right to sue Southwest Marine, which operates a ship repair business in San Diego.

Gizoni was a rigging foreman employed by Southwest Marine when he suffered allegedly disabling leg and back injuries in a fall on April 6, 1987.

He received disability pay under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act but subsequently sued Southwest Marine under a separate law, the Jones Act.

A federal trial judge threw out the suit after ruling that Gizoni was not a seaman eligible to invoke the Jones Act.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial judge and reinstated Gizoni’s suit.

“The question of whether Gizoni is a Jones Act seaman should have been presented to a jury,” the appeals court ruled.

The justices last week turned their back on a series of 1950s decisions and ruled for the first time that someone need not aid in the navigation or operation of a ship to qualify as a seaman under the Jones Act.

That ruling preserved a legal victory won by an offshore platform painter and sandblaster assigned to a “paint boat” chartered to his employer.

In the case acted on Monday, Gizoni was not assigned to any ship but worked aboard floating platforms in the San Diego shipyard.