Rock v. Huffco Gas & Oil Co.

922 F.2d 272 (5th Cir. 1991)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

P while employed as a steward/cook for Offshore Food Service. Offshore provides food catering services to offshore drilling platforms and vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. P was assigned to work with Huffco (D) on Platform 206A. P claimed that his foot fell through a rusted part of a step located just outside of his doorway causing him to sprain his ankle. There were no witnesses. P reported the incident to the chief supervisor on the platform at the time. P did not think the sprain was that bad and that he wanted to stay and work. The supervisor did not prepare an accident report form. The ankle continued to bother P, and an accident report form was prepared. It was written that P's 'foot slipped to bad part of porch.' The supervisor confirmed the rusted condition of the step and the existence of a hole and noted that he had not seen the hole during previous inspections. Doctors reported that P had a tender and swollen right ankle and described the injury as a moderate sprain. The ankle was placed in a six-inch plaster splint. After a few days of rest, P returned to work. P was eventually assigned to Dual Drilling Company Rig No. 41. Within hours of arriving on the drilling rig, P claimed to have re-injured his ankle by slipping in some grease on the floor of the rig's galley. Breaux, another Offshore Food's employee, said he was in the galley at the time of the accident and did not see P fall. Breaux claims that P had previously advised him of a plan to fake such an accident. Another Offshore Food's employee, Carl Trahan, corroborated Breaux's story. An accident report was filed. P consulted Dr. A. Delmar Walker and provided the doctor with a history of the injury to his ankle including a description of the two incidents discussed above. P was suffering from a condition known as venous insufficiency. This occurs when the veins in the lower legs fail to return blood to the torso. Several surgeries were performed but his condition deteriorated. P developed infections, possibly resulting from the surgical procedures themselves. P died of a heart attack on December 12, 1988. Surviving members of his family substituted themselves as plaintiffs and pursued negligence claims against Ds. Dual (D) filed a motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that the evidence from the doctors offered by Ps constituted hearsay, which did not fall within any of the recognized exceptions to the hearsay rule. The summary judgment was granted, and Ps appealed.