Junior A. Sobrino-Barrera v. Anderson Shipping Company, Limited; SoCoGEM SAM; Oldendorff Carriers GmbH & Company, K.G.

Summary

The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the vessel owner, operator, and charterer in a Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act negligence action arising from a longshoreman’s injury during cargo unloading. The court held that the district court properly excluded the plaintiff’s untimely expert affidavit and correctly determined that the defendants had not breached any of the Scindia duties or an applicable contractual duty.

Holdings

1. The district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the portions of Captain Grace’s affidavit that introduced opinions not contained in his original expert report and went beyond merely supporting or proving up that report.
2. The vessel defendants had no turnover duty to warn Sobrino-Barrera about the pipe stowage or lack of dunnage because those conditions were open and obvious to him.
3. Sobrino-Barrera failed to establish a breach of the vessel’s active-control duty because the vessel’s cargo plan did not constitute operational control over the unloading process.
4. Sobrino-Barrera failed to establish a duty to intervene because there was no evidence that the vessel’s crew had actual knowledge of a dangerous condition or that the stevedores’ conduct was so obviously improvident that intervention was required.
5. Oldendorff could not be held liable for breach of the charter-party provision because it was not a party to the agreement, and the provision operated as an indemnification clause between the contracting parties rather than as a duty owed to longshoremen.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court abused its discretion by excluding Captain Joe Grace’s affidavit under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(c)(1) because it contained untimely, previously undisclosed expert opinions.
2. Whether the vessel defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Sobrino-Barrera presented no evidence that they breached a turnover duty, active-control duty, duty to intervene, or contractual duty under section 905(b) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

Disposition

affirmed