Earl K. Phillips and Carrie Phillips v. The Western Company of North America

KING, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Earl Phillips reinjured his back while he and a co-employee connected a flow line to the bell nipple on the blow-out preventer (BOP) stack of the TRITON III, a jack-up drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana owned by defendant The Western Company of North America (Western). He asserted an unseaworthiness claim under general maritime law and a negligence claim under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. § 688, and his wife asserted a claim for loss of consortium under general maritime law. After the close of the plaintiff’s case, the district court granted Western’s motion…