Johnny L. Boudreaux v. Sea Drilling Corporation

The plaintiff-appellant, Johnny L. Boudreaux, worked on an offshore drilling location in navigable waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Sea Drilling Corporation, defendant-appellee, operated a diesel-powered drilling rig mounted on a stationary platform. Boudreaux, an experienced oil field worker, was a “driller” or foreman directly in charge of the drilling crew and second man in charge of the rig. He was injured when a wire rope on a crane broke. The crane was being used to lower the “widow maker” to the bow or poop deck of the drilling tender. A widow maker is a heavy (18,-000 pounds or more)…