At the time of the call, none of the larger boats was available to go to the disabled craft. According to plaintiff, the message was a call to remove the scowman from his open boat, where he was cold and wet and 'freezing to death.' Defendant's evidence indicated that the captain suggested no emergency but merely requested assistance with moving the scow. The captain radioed to base, but exactly what he said is a matter of dispute. On January 9, 1982, a day of increasingly rough weather and turbulent seas, one of the tugs, with scow attached, lost its rudder and its power and went adrift in the bay. Furka was chief-of-party on a surveying team operating on a Boston Whaler. In addition to a hydraulic dredge and two crew boats, Great Lakes maintained a number of tugboats, scows, and Boston Whalers to perform various functions on and around the project. We remand the case for a new trial in accordance with the guidelines set forth below.Īppellant Deborah Furka is the widow of Paul Furka ('Furka'), who was employed by appellee Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company ('Great Lakes') as a surveyor on a large marine dike construction project at Hart and Miller Islands in the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore. We hold that the trial court's failure to give a proper rescue charge to the jury constitutes plain error and requires reversal despite a failure of counsel to object to the charge in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P.

During that attempt, the would-be rescuer was swept by the waves from his boat and drowned. This is an action brought for negligence under the Jones Act and for unseaworthiness under general maritime law involving an alleged rescue attempt by appellant's decedent of a fellow employee on the Chesapeake Bay.

Us v great lakes dredge and dock