A Seaman is suing his employer for injuries he sustained while working aboard the M/V Marie Cenac.
Eddie T. Authement was working as a tankerman for Enterprise Marine Services at the time of the accident. The injury occurred when Authement was assigned to chip paint in the bilge while the vessel was navigating through the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
Authement was required to remove a hatch cover to a vessel’s deck in order to do the job, but no barriers or cordons were available to mark or prevent people from entering the area with the removed hatch cover. While Authement was standing in this area and speaking to his relief tankerman, the vessel moved unexpectedly and he slipped and fell into the bilge.
Authement filed a Jones Act lawsuit against Enterprise Marine Services on Nov. 3 in federal court in New Orleans.
The suit alleges that the defendant was negligent and did not take the proper safety precautions when the employer not did not have barriers or other protective equipment available to prevent workers from falling into the bilge.
Enterprise Marine Services is accused of negligence in failing to provide a competent crew, failing to properly supervise and supervise its employees, failing to provide a safe place to work and requiring Authement to work in unsafe conditions without the proper equipment required to perform certain operations.
