Photo Courtesy Eddie Fouse:http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=18381&picture=tug-boats-at-deck
What is Maintenance and Cure?
Note: This next section of Chapter 3 explains what "maintenance, cure, and lost wages" are under maritime law. Part of the mission of the National Mariners Association is to keep professional mariners informed concerning their rights. We will avoid over taxing our serial reader by going over all of the chapter and verse of the law contained in the book. When we post our free down load you can always look up additional details.
In our last installment we described how our main character, Preston was injured in the service of his vessel and a year later was still under going surgery and unable to work. Mariners don't get workman's compensation, they are supposed to receive, automatically and without question of "fault" a much lesser recovery called "maintenance, cure and lost wages."At first hearing "maintenance, cure and lost wages" sounds good, its not.
First by operation of maritime law "lost wages"has nothing to do with wages lost over the period of an injured or sick sailor's incapacity, it refers to wages lost to the end of the voyage he was serving on. That means if a mariner is working two weeks on and two weeks off, as is the typical custom of the industry he might receive two weeks pay, tops, if he is lucky enough to be injured at the start of a "tour". "Cure"means maximum medical cure. When the doctors can't do anything more for the mariner it's over, there is no rehab, or retraining allowance. If maximum cure leaves you unable to work as a mariner, crawling the rest of the way out of the hole is up to the mariner on his own. While undergoing "cure" the mariner is entitled to an allowance based on the value of a mariner's room and board aboard ship, often in the $15 to $20 a day range. With a lawyer's help a seaman may be able to get more under certain circumstances, this is what they mean by maintenance.
The most important thing to keep in mind about maintenance , cure, and lost wages is that this minuscule recovery is automatic and is supposed to be paid promptly regardless of "fault". Preston's employer allegedly withheld this relief nearly a year after the accident. If a seaman needs any more than maintenance , cure,and lost wages he must demonstrate that his employer was negligent. A seaman may also sue for recovery of punitive damages for unpaid maintenance, cure , and lost wages if the withholding was particularly "egregious". A boat owner may avoid this recovery if he can demonstrate the seaman's injury was the result of "misconduct". After a year of reports and documentation Tidewater Marine attempted to withhold the support from Preston based on the "need to investigate". This is where the story line picks up.
Tidewater's One Time Payment
On March 21, 2000, after Preston and his wife made repeated efforts to contact Tidewater to obtain maintenance and cure, Tidewater's claims manager, Sandy Duplantier, agreed to investigate Preston's well-documented accident and injuries but apparently was in no rush to do so. On November 20,2000, six months after promising to investigate and almost two years after the accident, Tidewater made a one time maintenance payment of $3,870 covering the period from the date of the accident but only through August 31, 1999 at a rate of $15 per day!
We believe each mariner should ask himself or herself this question. If I am out of work could I survive on $15 a day which is equivalent to $5,475 a year. Do you know the amount that your company pays for maintenance of mariners injured at work? Is it even $15 per day?
For example , one major towing company offered an American seaman seriously injured in Africa only $8 per day. Could you survive for two years waiting to receive even a partial payment as Preston did? Keep in mind that Tide Water is the largest operator of offshore supply vessels in the world. Now, consider the proposition of having to wait two years to be paid this pittance and then only after hiring a lawyer to even get this far. Shame on Tidewater, shame on the perpetuation of this entire system of accident and injury compensation.
After Preston Joseph hired a lawyer,Tidewater agreed that, after examining the medical records ...."it appears that Tidewater is obligated to pay maintenance and cure related to the hernia." Yet, Tidewater claimed that it had no knowledge whether Preston received any medical treatment after their arbitrary cut off date of August 31, 1999 even though they had in their possession a report from Preston's physician dated October 22, 1999 that he was scheduled to see a urologist to determine whether he might return to work. Tidewater unilaterally decided to stop making any further maintenance and cure payments even though no doctor ever found that Preston had reached "maximum cure" to be continued
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