Trawler Worker Awarded $500,000 Woman Says She Was Assaulted, Then Harassed When She Complained
A federal judge has awarded nearly $500,000 to a Kirkland woman who was assaulted by a co-worker in her factory-trawler berth on a 1994 Alaska fishing trip, and then harassed by the rest of the crew when she complained about it.
American Seafoods Co. and American Empress Ltd. Partnership were ordered to pay $462,000 to Bonnie Langseth, 25, by U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner.
Langseth’s attorney, Jim Jacobsen, said the ruling should “send a message” to the industry that harassment of female crew on trawlers will not be tolerated.
American Seafoods plans to appeal the decision and the award to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, officials said Friday, citing Tanner’s refusal to allow some witnesses to testify and his decision to bar from evidence documents detailing the ship’s investigation of the incident.
“Had Judge Tanner heard our witnesses and considered all of the evidence, we believe he would have reached a much different conclusion,” said Tammy French, the company’s director of human resources.
Langseth testified at the non-jury trial last month that she was asleep on Feb. 25, 1994 - after a 12-hour shift sorting fish roe - when she awoke to find a drunken co-worker climbing into her bunk. The man pinned her down by her wrists and grabbed at her legs as the boat rolled in rough seas. Fearing she was about to be raped, Langseth screamed and struggled. The man mumbled an apology and fled.
The door to her cabin was unlocked because crew members were not given keys, she said. They were told to leave their doors unsecured so they could be woken up for work.
She complained to the captain about the incident but the man was allowed the run of the ship for a week before he was fired for violating the ship’s ban on alcoholic beverages. Other crew members supported him in the matter, she said, subjecting her to verbal abuse and leaving crude notes on the door to her quarters.
Psychologists testified that Langseth suffers from post-traumatic stress and depression.
Tanner said the captain’s failure to confine the man to quarters was unreasonable and contributed to a hostile work environment. In his June 13 ruling, received by Langseth’s attorneys this week, Tanner also criticized the companies for allowing “commonplace” violation of the Coast Guard ban on drinking aboard ship, for requiring workers to sleep in unsecured quarters, for failing to confine Langseth’s assailant and for failing to adequately protect her from retaliation by crew members.
The lawsuit is one of several filed in recent years by female crew on boats fishing in Alaska.
The boat’s captain, Barry Fitzpatrick, argued that the companies should not be held responsible for the man’s actions.
He said seas were too rough to immediately transfer the man - who had no previous record of such behavior - to another vessel. He said he made sure that the man and Langseth worked different shifts and fired him March 4, when he was able to remove him from the trawler. When Langseth complained about harassment from other crew members, Fitzpatrick said he ordered supervisors to squelch any discussion of the matter.