According to a opinion issued earlier today by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals - two years after a tragic single-boat accident, one of the boat's occupants, John Andrew Newbold, succumbed to his injuries. The boat had struck a submerged warning sign during the accident, and the estate and survivors of the deceased sued the companies responsible for the sign. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, Kinder Morgan, a Houston Company and Southern Natural Gas Company, on the grounds that the incident occurred on water governed by Louisiana law rather than federal law.
The crux of the appeal in case No. 22-30416 was whether the allision occurred in "navigable" waters, which would make federal law applicable. However, the court upheld the district court's decision, ru...