Smith v. Associated Pipe Line Contractors, Inc.

Plaintiff’s husband was killed in a two-car collision which resulted from the negligence of defendant’s employee, Nugent. We have previously sustained a summary judgment denying liability of the employer under the Jones Act for the death of a fellow-employee guest passenger riding with Nugent on the ground that the driver Nugent was not in the course of his employment at the time of the accident. Moore v. Associated Pipeline Contractors, 468 F.2d 815 (5th Cir. 1972).

Plaintiff contends that Nugent was acting in the course and scope of his employment, under Louisiana law,1 at the time of the…