Asbestos exposure at a Louisiana shipyard rarely fits neatly under a single legal framework. Whether federal maritime law, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, or state tort law applies can depend on the worker’s job, the exposure location, and any tie to a U.S. Navy vessel.
Worker Status Often Decides Which Law Applies
The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act covers maritime employees like longshore workers, ship repairers, and shipbuilders. However, it excludes a vessel’s master or crew members, who typically fall under the Jones Act instead.
Coverage also depends on location, reaching injuries on navigable waters and adjoining maritime work areas such as piers, dry docks, and shipbuilding sites. Louisiana law reflects this split, too, since state workers’ compensation is generally not payable for disability already covered under a federal maritime scheme.
Federal Rules Can Shift Liability and Forum
Whether a worker qualifies as a Jones Act seaman is its own fact question. In Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, the Supreme Court held that seaman status generally requires a substantial connection, in duration and nature, to a vessel, treating roughly 30 percent of work time as a rough guideline rather than a fixed rule.
LHWCA compensation is usually the exclusive remedy against a covered employer, though claims against a negligent vessel or a third-party manufacturer may still be available. In Air & Liquid Systems Corp. v. DeVries, the Court rejected a blanket bare-metal defense, holding that a manufacturer owes a maritime duty to warn when its product requires a dangerous part, and the manufacturer knew, or should have known, of the danger.
Work performed under Navy direction can also let a defendant remove a state case to federal court, as the Fifth Circuit recognized in Latiolais v. Huntington Ingalls. Still, removal alone does not decide the governing law.
Reconstruct the Exposure Timeline Early
The Fifth Circuit’s Barrosse decision shows why timing matters. Because Louisiana’s workers’ compensation law did not cover mesothelioma when a worker’s exposure began decades ago, the court applied the law in effect at that earlier time, not the later diagnosis date. Gathering job titles, shipyard records, vessels worked on, and equipment specifications early can matter as much as the diagnosis itself.
At Pourciau Law Firm, we can help sort out which laws may apply to a shipyard asbestos exposure and identify records worth preserving. Call us at 504-305-2375, or reach out to us to start piecing that history together.