Blog Post


King County Jury Awards $1.3 Million In Punitive Damages Against Icicle Seafoods

Posted by: James Beard
November 20, 2009
Topic: Legal Cases and Concerns

A King County Washington jury has awarded $1.5 million to a 55 year old Louisiana fisherman who suffered injuries while working aboard a fish processing vessel owned by Icicle Seafoods.  The jury found Icicle Seafoods’ conduct in failing to pay the injured seaman, Dana Clausen, his full entitlement to maintenance and cure benefits to be willful and callous and assessed $1,300,000 of the award in punitive damages.  Jim Jacobsen of Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, together with Larry Curtis, represented Clausen.

The punitive damage award is one of the first major maritime punitive damage awards in the nation following the United States Supreme Court’s June 2009 landmark decision in Atlantic Soundings v. Townsend.  Under maritime law, an injured seaman’s employer is obligated to pay all of his reasonable and necessary medical bills (cure) related to an injury or illness arising aboard ship.  Additionally, the employer must pay a daily living allowance called maintenance.  A seaman is not required to prove fault to recover these basic benefits.

To recover punitive damages in a maintenance and cure case, a seaman must prove that his employer willfully and wantonly failed to provide the seaman maintenance and cure benefits that were due.  The employer has an obligation to reasonably investigate maintenance and cure (medical) claims.  However, all doubts and ambiguities as to entitlements to maintenance and cure must be resolved in favor of the injured seaman. The employer owes a seaman a high duty of care in administering maintenance and cure benefits.

During the course of Clausen’s trial, a secret medical report issued at the request of Icicle’s insurance adjuster was ordered produced by the trial Court.  Contrary to the position taken by Icicle, that report supported Clausen’s claim that he needed further treatment and would possibly need surgery in the future. Icicle improperly ignored the content of the secret medical report.  Icicle’s insurance adjuster’s file contained notations about attempting to “bait” Clausen into settlement of his claim and thereby controlling future medical expenses.  Remarkably, at trial, Icicle’s own medical expert admitted that some of Clausen’s unpaid medical bills were related to curative medical treatment which Icicle was refusing to reimburse Clausen. The jury appears to have accepted Clausen’s lawyers’ argument that Icicle’s actions were a callous attempt to wrongfully grind Clausen into submission on his claims.

In February of 2006, Clausen suffered neck and back injuries while working in the engineering department of the fish processing barge Bering Star.  He was attempting to lift a 122 pound piece of sheet metal when the injuries occurred.  Icicle argued at trial that the accident was all Clausen’s fault.  However, evidence showed that Icicle had no written lifting policy for its employees.  Under maritime law, an employer has a duty to properly train a crewman in safety procedures and to supervise its crew.  Standards set by the American Bureau of Shipping, OSHA and NIOSH, all state that lifting in excess of 50lbs should not be undertaken by workers.  Icicle claimed that Clausen had been instructed to not lift anything beyond what he thought was safe, but Icicle provided Clausen no guidance on how much was too much to lift.  When cross examined about how a worker was to determine whether a lift was safe or unsafe, Icicle’s expert admitted that being injured was one of the only ways for Clausen to determine his own lifting limits.  Icicle’s foreman also testified on cross examination that he lifted in excess of 50 pounds aboard ship and saw no safety problems with such lifts.  The jury found Clausen 44%  contributory at fault for his injury.

The Clausen case is notice to the maritime community that an employer has a good faith duty to pay maintenance and cure benefits.  Employers that attempt to increase profits by denying maintenance and cure to a seaman will be subject to punitive damage claims and potential jury awards like that made to Clausen.  Further post trial proceedings will now take place to determine the amount of reasonable attorney fees to be awarded Clausen based upon Icicle’s willful and callous misconduct in administering maintenance and cure benefits.

Beard Stacey & Jacobsen is a maritime personal injury firm focused on representing the rights of injured seamen and fishermen.  They have recovered many multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements for their clients located throughout the Nation.  This summer a Boston jury awarded their client 2.35 million dollars in damages for a crushed foot.  They have also reached settlements this year in the sinkings of the Alaska fishing boats ALASKA RANGER and KATMAI.