In a unanimous en banc decision in Sanchez v. Smart Fabricators of Texas, L.L.C., No. 19-20506 (5th Cir. May 11, 2021) (en banc), authored by Judge W. Eugene Davis, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court decision holding that a welder assigned to a jack-up rig was not a seaman within the meaning of the Jones Act. In refashioning the seaman status test, the Fifth Circuit held that additional inquiries must be made to determine whether an offshore worker is a Jones Act seaman. Since the US Supreme Court decided Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis in 1995, courts have used a two-part test to determine whether a particular worker is a Jones Act seaman: (1) whether the employee's duties "contribute to the function of the vessel or to the accomplishment of its mission" and (2) whether the employee has "a connection to a vessel in navigation (or to an identifiable group of such vessels) that is substantial in terms of both its duration and nature." 515 U.S. 347 (1995). Continue reading >