Jenkins v. Aquatic Contractors & Engineers

This appeal combines the perennial question of seaman status under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, with a challenge to an
extraordinarily generous $100,000 jury verdict. The District Court concluded that the plaintiff was a Robison1 seaman as
a matter of law and granted his motion for summary judgment on that issue. We affirm that judgment but remand for additional
consideration of the jury's award of damages. Appellee Delos Jenkins, working as a welder on a pipe-laying barge, was injured while attempting to move some steel plate.
In his affidavit he stated that at the time of the accident he was a permanent member of the barge's crew working in navigable
waters and that he ate, worked and slept on board the vessel. These facts were not contradicted by the defendant, nor was
there any evidentiary conflict with respect to the plaintiff's status.