The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has unanimously affirmed a district court's ruling that a sea captain is entitled to more than $11 million in lost future earnings after he was injured tripping over a stair in a hatch door. The case is Rivera v. Kirby Offshore Marine L.L.C. No. 19-40799, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40163 (5th Cir. Dec. 22, 2020). 

From June 2007 to July 2018, Captain Jay Rivera was a state-commissioned Branch Pilot for the Port Aransas Bar and Corpus Christi Bay. Through July 2018, he was a member of the Aransas-Corpus Christi Pilots Association (Association), an unincorporated pilots association that regulates the rules and procedures of licensed pilots acting on the Port Aransas Bar and the surrounding tributaries. The Association also collects fees earned by the members, uses the fees in a common fund, and makes pro rata distributions to its members. 

In August, 2016 Captain Rivera was dispatched to pilot the M/V Tarpon, a 120-foot seagoing vessel, which was indirectly owned and operated by Kirby Offshore Marine, L.L.C. (Kirby). While aboard the Tarpon, Captain Rivera was being escorted to the wheelhouse when he stepped into a hatch access door that was not well illuminated, rolled his ankle and fell. When he was injured, he was wearing sunglasses. After he was injured, he received ibuprofen and ice, reported the injury to the Tarpon's captain, and later piloted the Tarpon to its intended destination.