## Facts

- Two seamen serving on Texaco’s tanker became ill while the vessel was docked at Texaco’s refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad.
- The seamen were determined unable to continue the voyage and needed to be discharged in a foreign port.
- Federal law required that an incapacitated seaman being discharged abroad be taken to a United States consul so return arrangements could be made.
- The U.S. consul’s office was in Port of Spain, about 38 miles from the refinery.
- Texaco had vehicles for local transportation near the refinery but typically used one of two local taxi companies for longer trips.
- The ship’s master obtained a taxi to transport the two seamen to the U.S. consul.
- On the way, the taxi collided with a truck, killing the master and one seaman and seriously injuring the other.
- A jury found the taxi driver negligent, and the district court entered judgment for the plaintiffs under the Jones Act.
- The Fourth Circuit reversed, holding Texaco not liable for the taxi operator’s negligence.

## Issues

1. Whether, under the Jones Act (incorporating FELA), Texaco was liable for the negligence of a privately owned taxi driver transporting seamen to a U.S. consul as part of Texaco’s statutory duty to discharge incapacitated seamen in a foreign port.
2. Whether the taxi operator was an “agent” of Texaco for purposes of FELA-based employer liability when performing an operational activity arranged by Texaco.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the court of appeals.
- The Court held Texaco liable under Jones Act/FELA standards for the taxi driver’s negligence.
- Because Texaco had a duty to get the seamen to the consulate and selected the taxi service to carry out that duty, Texaco bore responsibility for the negligence of the driver it chose.
- The jury’s negligence finding against the taxi driver was not disputed on further review.

## Legal Principles

- The Jones Act incorporates FELA standards, making an employer liable for employee injuries caused by the negligence of its “officers, agents, or employees.”
- Under FELA, “agents” is construed broadly to advance the statute’s remedial purpose and to allocate the cost of work-related human injury to the enterprise.
- When an employee’s injury is caused in whole or in part by the fault of others performing, under contract, operational activities of the employer, those persons are treated as the employer’s “agents” for FELA liability.
- Transportation arranged by the employer to fulfill a legal obligation owed to the employee can qualify as an operational activity for which contractor negligence is imputable to the employer.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Texaco’s statutory duty to take incapacitated seamen to a U.S. consul made the contracted taxi trip an operational activity of the enterprise, so the taxi driver’s negligence was attributable to Texaco under the Jones Act’s FELA-based agency standard.


Hopson v. Texaco, Inc., 383 U.S. 262 (1966)