The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a maritime employer may be liable to an injured seaman if its failure to comply with a Coast Guard regulation played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury. In the instant case, plaintiff deckhand was periodically required to do free dives (dives without scuba gear) to retrieve mooring lines that had sunk to the sea floor. Plaintiff was an experienced free diver. On one occasion, plaintiff failed to properly equalize the hyperbaric pressure in his left ear on descent and suffered injury. Plaintiff brought suit against his employer alleging, among other things, that defendant failed to have a diving operations manual as required by US Coast Guard regulations.
