Florida Fuels, Inc. v. Citgo Petroleum Corp.

Because I would vacate the district court’s dismissal and remand this case for trial, I respectfully dissent.

The majority, relying on Daniels v. Florida Power & Light Co., 317 F.2d 41 (5th Cir.1963) and National Marine Service Inc. v. Gulf Oil Co., 433 F.Supp. 913, 919 (E.D.La.1977), concludes that regardless of the facts in any particular case a wharfowner never owes a duty to a crewmember of a vessel to provide safe access from the vessel to the wharf. The majority reads too much into those cases.

In Daniels, a deck engineer fell off a ladder while climbing from his barge to a dock; the…