NEW ORLEANS – A crew member has filed a lawsuit against her employers after allegedly being injured during a fire drill.
Nadine Butler filed her complaint November 6 against USS Transport, US Shipping Corporation, US Shipping Partners, USS Chartering and USS ATB 2.
According to court documents, on November 6, 2020, Butler was a crew member aboard the ATB Brownsville, a vessel in the employ of and staffed by the defendants. She alleges that on that date, she was injured during a fire drill when a fellow crew member carelessly yanked a fire hose. As a result of the incident, Butler says she suffered an injury to her left hand and fingers.
Butler claims the incompetence of the crew member who caused the injury rendered the vessel unseaworthy, breaching the duty of the owner/bareboat charter to provide a seaworthy vessel.
Butler is seeking $100,000 in damages for pain, suffering, disability from employment for approximately seven months, medical expenses, plus court costs and any other relief the court deems proper.
She is being represented by Daniel S. Foley and Bryan K. Jefferson of Foley, Lamy & Jefferson in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:23-cv-06714