New Maintenance & Cure Case from Second Circuit - Messier v. Bouchard Transportation

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a decision relating to a seaman's right to maintenance and cure.  The case is Messier v. Bouchard Transportation and the opinion can be downloaded here.

While normally, discussions of "manifestation" and "occurrence" rules are seen in the insurance coverage context, see www.insurancelawhawaii.com, they also govern the availability of maintenance and cure payments for mariners' injuries.

In this case, a mariner's injury manifested when he was no longer a seaman, but was undoubtedly present when he was a seaman.  The court found that the occurrence test more fairly accomplished the objectives of the maintenance and cure remedy, and adopted it as the appropriate test.