Steve Mohn v. Marla Marie, Inc.

The only substantial issue in this personal injury case is whether the failure of the trial judge to give a requested instruction was reversible error.

Steven Mohn was a fisherman whose duties required him to pilot a speedboat used in circling around schools of fish preliminary to a purse seine being winched aboard the “mother ship” from which the speedboat operated. Mohn was injured when his speedboat went out of control and he was thrown into the water.

The action was brought on the usual two theories, Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness, but the trial judge instructed only on unseaworthiness. The record is equivocal on whether the plaintiff acquiesced in the judge’s announced intent to give only the unseaworthiness instruction. However, after being surprised by a defense verdict, the plaintiff, in a motion for a new trial, correctly called to the court’s attention his timely request that the jury be instructed on both theories of liability. The trial court denied the motion for a new trial.

Mohn’s principal argument on appeal is that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on negligence. Appellee responds that a negligence instruction is unnecessary when…