Judith Barbara Williamson v. Western Pacific Dredging Corp., Judith Barbara Williamson v. Western Pacific Dredging Corp.

We affirm the district court’s holding that in the particular circumstances of this case plaintiff’s decedent, a seaman employed aboard defendant’s dredge who lived at home and drove to and from work daily, was entitled to recover both maintenance and cure and damages under the Jones Act because of injuries sus tained in an automobile accident while commuting. See 304 F.Supp. 509 (D.Ore.1969).

Defendant argues that maintenance and cure should be available for shoreside injuries only when they are incurred on shore leave and that plaintiff’s decedent was not on shore leave but was living in his own home under conditions that made the rationale of the shore leave cases inapplicable to him.

It is true that the district court cited shore leave cases and that passages in the court’s opinion may suggest that maintenance and cure was awarded on the premise that the accident occurred while the decedent was on a “daily” shore leave.

The court relied upon the shore leave cases primarily, however, to support the proposition that maintenance and cure may be recovered even though the seaman’s injury did not occur aboard ship. Moreover, shore leave was not involved in either of the two cases…