What is a Seaman, under the Jones Act?
The U. S. Supreme Court set forth the following guidelines for determination of seaman status: • Those working aboard a vessel for the duration of a voyage in furtherance of the vessel’s mission are not necessarily seamen. • Jones Act coverage depends not on the place where the injury is inflicted, but on the nature of the seaman’s service, his status as a member of the vessel, and his relationship as such to the vessel and its operation in navigable waters. • A distinction must be made between sea-based workers and land-based workers who have only a transitory or sporadic connection to a vessel in navigation. • Land-based maritime workers do not become seamen because they happen to be working aboard a vessel when they are injured, and seamen do not lose Jones Act protection where the course of their service to a vessel takes them ashore. • In evaluating the employment-related connection of a maritime worker to a vessel in navigation, courts should not employ a “snapshot” test for seam
