In Re: The Matter of Marquette Transportation Company Gulf-Inland, LLC

Filing 142

ORDER denying 121 Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and Marquette'smotion for a status conference is DENIED AS MOOT. Signed by Judge Sarah S. Vance on 6/15/2016. (mmm)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA
CIVIL ACTION
IN THE MATTER OF
MARQUETTE
TRANSPORTATION COMPANY
GULF-INLAND, LLC, AS
OWNER AND OPERATOR OF
THE TOWING VESSEL FATHER
SEELOS, ETC.

NO. 13-5114

SECTION: R
ORDER
This case arises out of a July 7, 2013 collision between the FATHER
SEELOS, a towing vessel owned and operated by Marquette Transportation
Company Gulf-Inland, LLC's ("Marquette"), and a fishing vessel owned by
John Tran, who was killed in the collision. Marquette seeks exoneration from
or limitation of liability under 46 U.S.C. § 30501, et seq., while claimants
Susan Tran (individually and as a personal representative of the decedent,
John Tran, on behalf of herself and her minor child, Marsha Tran), Quoc Tran,
Jeanie Tran, and Nancy Pham assert claims against Marquette under general
maritime law and the survival and wrongful death laws of Texas. Trial is
currently scheduled for July 11, 2016.

On April 25, 2016, Marquette filed a motion for partial summary
judgment.1 Marquette argued that this case is governed exclusively by federal
maritime law and that the Tran claimants' damages claims under Texas's
wrongful death and survival laws must therefore be dismissed. On April 26,
2016, the Court ruled that because John Tran was a nonseafarer killed in
Texas's territorial waters, the Tran claimants are permitted to seek damages
under that state's wrongful death and survival statutes.2 In light of this ruling,
and for the reasons explained in the Court's order, Marquette's motion for
partial summary judgment is DENIED.
On May 5, 2016, Marquette moved the Court to conduct a status
conference for the purpose of rescheduling the then-existing trial date of June
13, 2016.3 After consulting with counsel for all parties, the Court continued
trial to the mutually-agreeable date of July 11, 2016. Therefore, Marquette's
motion for a status conference is DENIED AS MOOT.

15th
New Orleans, Louisiana, this ____ day of June, 2016.
________________________________
SARAH S. VANCE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

1

R. Doc. 121.

2

R. Doc. 127.

3

R. Doc. 139.
2