Case: Ledet v. Parker Drilling Offshore USA, L.L.C., et al.
           Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal
           Civil Action No. 2016-CA-1339,

In Ledet v. Parker Drilling Offshore USA, L.L.C., et al., following de novo review, the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal found the trial court committed reversible error in resolving disputed factual issues and granting summary judgment in Defendants' favor. The case involved a suit for personal injury and punitive damages arising out of an incident between a large commercial vessel and a small recreational boat, which occurred in the Intracoastal Waterway, near Berwick, Louisiana. Plaintiffs claimed to have sustained physical and mental injuries when the recreational boat in which they were passengers attempted to pass the M/V Miss Cissy, a 46.5 foot crew boat, on its port side and encountered swells and wakes when the Miss Cissy accelerated. Plaintiffs alleged Defendants allowed the Miss Cissy to travel in an unreasonable and unsafe manner and provided facts to support the allegations based on general negligence principles under both federal and state law.

Following discovery, the trial court granted summary judgment for the Defendants, dismissing the Plaintiffs' claims. In analyzing the alleged liability of the Defendants, the trial court focused primarily on the issue of whether the recreational boat was overtaking or attempting to overtake the Miss Cissy prior to the incident. The trial court ultimately found that the recreational boat was, in fact, overtaking, and granted summary judgment primarily on that basis. On appeal, the Louisiana First Circuit reversed, finding summary judgment was improperly granted.

In so holding, the Louisiana First Circuit noted that whether a vessel is responsible for damages caused by swells depends on the facts and circumstances of each particular case and observed the law is well established that all moving vessels owe a duty of reasonable care to appreciate the reasonable effect of its wake and to take reasonable precautions to avoid creating unusual swells that may injure others. The Court then stated the actions of the recreational vessel vis-à-vis the Miss Cissy were in dispute and resolution of the factual disputes necessarily involved factual credibility determinations and weight given to the evidence, which the trial court improperly weighed in granting summary judgment.

Because the trial court's application of law was based on the resolution of a factual question, i.e., whether the situation involved a passing (overtaking) or a crossing, the applicable law was dependent on the factfinder's conclusion with regard to whether a passing or a crossing occurred. Accordingly, the trial court was found to have committed reversible error in resolving disputed factual issues in granting summary judgment and in failing to address numerous allegations of disputed facts based on the other alleged rule violations and general negligence principles.

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