## Facts

- Jon Wilander worked for McDermott International, Inc. as a paint foreman supervising sandblasting and painting work on offshore oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
- McDermott chartered the U.S.-flag vessel M/V *Gates Tide*, a “paint boat” carrying equipment used to service the platforms.
- Wilander was assigned to the *Gates Tide* in connection with this offshore work.
- On July 4, 1983, while inspecting a pipe on a platform, a pressurized bolt blew out and struck Wilander in the head.
- Wilander sued McDermott under the Jones Act, which provides a negligence action for an injured “seaman,” but does not define “seaman.”
- McDermott argued Wilander was not a Jones Act seaman because he did not perform navigation or transportation-related tasks.

## Issues

1. Whether a worker must “aid in the navigation” of a vessel to qualify as a “seaman” under the Jones Act.
2. Whether a worker assigned to a vessel for specialized offshore platform-support work can qualify as a Jones Act seaman based on contribution to the vessel’s function or mission.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s judgment for Wilander.
- The Court held that a worker need not aid in the navigation of a vessel to qualify as a Jones Act seaman.
- The Court approved a functional inquiry focusing on whether the worker’s employment contributes to the vessel’s function or the accomplishment of its mission, consistent with limiting seaman status to vessel-based maritime employees.

## Legal Principles

- When Congress uses an established maritime term in the Jones Act without defining it, the term is presumed to carry its general maritime law meaning at the time of enactment.
- By 1920, general maritime law did not impose a strict “aid in navigation” requirement; it focused on employment on board a vessel in furtherance of the vessel’s purpose.
- The Jones Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act are mutually exclusive; a Jones Act “seaman” corresponds to a “master or member of a crew of any vessel.”
- “Member of a crew” limits Jones Act coverage to vessel-based maritime workers, but does not require navigation duties.
- A worker may qualify as a seaman if the worker’s duties contribute to the function of the vessel or to the accomplishment of its mission, within a vessel-based employment relationship.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Jones Act seaman status does not depend on performing navigation or transportation-related work; it depends on vessel-based employment in which the worker’s duties further the vessel’s function or mission, consistent with the boundary between Jones Act seamen and LHWCA-covered maritime workers.


McDermott Int'l, Inc. v. Wilander, 498 U.S. 337 (1991)