CMA-CGM / APL Chief Engineer Abuse Case

This case involves a young male Third Assistant Engineer who came forward after alleging harassment, bullying, sexual harassment, physical assault, and a hostile work environment aboard the M/V APL Gulf Express. Speaking up mattered. Men who are harassed, bullied, sexually harassed, or assaulted at sea often face added pressure to stay quiet, minimize what happened, or absorb abuse as part of shipboard life. This client did not do that. He contacted Justice4Mariners attorney Ryan Melogy and asked for help.

Ryan worked with Coast Guard Investigative Service agents, Coast Guard Suspension and Revocation investigators and prosecutors, and the Department of Justice to pursue credential accountability against Chief Engineer John Frederick Daylor. The Coast Guard initiated proceedings seeking to revoke Daylor’s Merchant Mariner Credential, and Daylor later voluntarily surrendered his license. That result removed his credential from active use and showed that shipboard harassment and assault allegations can have licensing consequences, not just workplace consequences.

The civil case then turned to the company. APL Marine Services and CMA-CGM are part of one of the largest container shipping operations in the world. Taking on a company of that size requires a serious litigation team. Ryan assembled experienced maritime lawyers from Justice4Mariners, Nelson & Fraenkel LLP, and Waters Law P.C. to pursue accountability from the corporate defendants in federal court for what allegedly happened aboard their vessel.

The March 26, 2026 order is itself part of the impact. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied APL’s motion to dismiss the unseaworthiness claim and denied Daylor’s partial motion to dismiss the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim. The court recognized that allegations of a supervisor striking a subordinate in the head with a wrench, combined with repeated sexualized conduct and prior alleged misconduct, were enough for the case to move forward. The order gives this young mariner his day in court and reinforces a basic maritime principle: a vessel may be unseaworthy when the crew includes someone whose alleged conduct makes the ship unsafe for the people who work aboard it.