Graham

Patrick Graham (“Graham”) appealed from the summary judgment granted to the vessel owner and owner pro hac vice in their action for exoneration and limitation of liability. Graham was an adult volunteer and “mate” on an outing with the Sea Explorers, a nautical troop of boy scouts. Graham was injured when he dove into shallow water to swim to shore and secure the bowline. The main issue on appeal is whether the district court was correct when it found as a matter of law that Graham was not a seaman under the Jones Act. We find that there is a genuine issue of material fact, making summary adjudication improper, and reverse and remand.

Graham was a volunteer aboard The Am-brose, on a 10-day training cruise for a small troop of Sea Explorers. The unit for which Graham volunteered chartered a vessel from the Mt. Diablo Boy Scouts of America. Graham had previously been a Sea Explorer himself, and was serving as “mate” to the skipper, William Brazil. Brazil had selected Graham to assist him, and submitted Graham’s application to the Mt. Diablo Council of Boy Scouts for approval. Both the adult volunteers and the children were required to pay annual registration fees and all were…

dissenting:

I dissent because I do not believe Congress intended by the Jones Act to create access to insurance for catastrophic injuries suffered by hobby sailors who, from time to time, venture onto navigable waters without pay, for their own benefit, or, for the benefit of others they choose as objects of their bounty and good will.

The statute provides that “[a]ny seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course *1050 of his employment may ... maintain an action for damages at law ...” 46 U.S.C.App. § 688. The injured party must prove three facts: 1) personal injury; 2) seaman status; and 3) that the injury arose in the course of employment.

The majority discusses two discrete status requirements together: course of employment, and the occupational category of seaman, as if there were a single inquiry the jury could answer with a single yes or no. The experienced district judge looked at the statute, the more or less undisputed facts of the case, and the few appellate decisions available on the definition of “seaman” and granted summary judgment, thereby keeping the policy question in this case from going to the jury at all.

A jury is too blunt an instrument to answer…