We’ve talked about Sanchez before. You’re a shoreside employee. Say a welder at a yard. You go onboard the vessels but they’re all at the dock. You get hurt. Are you a Jones Act seaman? Well, eh.
It used to be the answer was “yes” and then Judge Davis issued an opinion where said “yes that’s true but also dumb and wrong so let’s fix it.”* He asked for en banc consideration. The Fifth Circuit said “ok.” And then they granted en banc argument and took briefing.
Mr. Sanchez had a real rough go of it, which is no fault of his lawyer - when Judge Davis says he’s going to fix something, there’s probably not a lot of chance you’re going to change his mind.
I feel pretty safe telling you what the outcome is: Mr. Sanchez is probably in for a rough day. He’s a longshoreman, not a Jones Act seaman. But the precise contours that will govern your work going forward are harder to discern. The Fifth Circuit seems to be saying that you have to go to sea (or, uh, river or bayou) to be a Jones Act seaman. But what does ‘go to sea’ mean? It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out.
*This is not an actual quote but it’s the gist.