The Sarnia

Decision Date22 May 1906
Docket Number225.
Citation147 F. 106
PartiesTHE SARNIA.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

P. S Dudley, for appellant.

W. H Smith, for appellee.

Before WALLACE, LACOMBE, and TOWNSEND, Circuit Judges.

LACOMBE Circuit Judge.

Before leaving port, while hauling in to shift the vessel from one berth to another, a loose wire of the cable pricked libelant's right hand. No negligence on the part of the ship is charged, so far as the original injury is concerned but it is contended that he did not receive the subsequent care to which as a seaman he was entitled. The hand gave him no trouble while in the port of New York. He worked just as well as before. But after three days from their sailing it swelled up and pained him very much. He used oil and bread to put on the swelling and the next day called it to the attention of the first officer and captain. The first officer relieved him of work except at the wheel, and, upon his complaining, of that also; poulticed the hand for a day or two and took off some of the hard skin with a knife. Six days after leaving New York the Sarnia reached Kingston, and the captain at once called in a duly qualified physician, who made an examination, treated the hand with warm antiseptic applications, and the next day made a free incision, and there was a free discharge of pus. He diagnosed the trouble as a 'whitlow' and dressed the wound with antiseptic dressing. Greco asked to be left in hospital at Kingston, but the doctor advised the ship's officers that it was unnecessary to leave him in hospital, that he could remain on board and the treatment be carried out there, and that he would probably recover in a week or 10 days. The doctor gave the chief officer instructions as to bathing, care, and dressing of the wound. The next day the vessel sailed for Port Limon, touching, at Port Columbus, where there was no doctor, and at Carthaga, where they stayed only four hours. The voyage from Kingston to Port Limon occupied six days, during which time the chief officer attending to his hand every day. The libelant says he 'cut it every day.' The chief officer says he did not cut it, but took out pus every day as the Kingston doctor had instructed him. Probably the pain of that operation made the plaintiff believe that he was being cut. Greco admits that the first officer 'put on some kind of remedy' each day and the mate's statement that he carefully obeyed the doctor's instructions is uncontradicted and inherently probable. It should be noted that this was not merely a rough seaman's effort to follow medical directions. The first officer was certificated under the German Law to serve as mate on German steamships. That law required him to study for eight months in a medical school and to pass an examination, all of which he had done and held certificate thereof.

By the time they reached Port Limon the hand was worse. Greco was at once put in charge of a competent surgeon who saw and treated him twice a day for the four days the ship remained there. The libelant says that he asked to be allowed to remain in hospital there. This is disputed by the ship's officers, and they are corroborated by the entirely disinterested testimony of Dr. Steggall, who says that he at first advised the transfer of the man from the ship to the hospital, but, upon asking the libelant if he would go to the hospital, the latter refused on account of his fear of the Limon climate in midsummer. It is at times afflicted with yellow fever. Thereupon the doctor told the ship's officers that the man could perfectly well go to New York and would receive better treatment when he got there. He also gave the first officer instructions as to treatment to be administered on the voyage home. He testified:

'The libelant's hand showed noticeable improvement during any treatment of same. I used an antiseptic treatment, i.e., lotions and dressings, and I advised the chief officer to administer the same daily during the trip to New York. The patient needed daily attendance, and I so instructed the officer in question. The hand was suppurating, but not very much. Otherwise I would not have allowed him to go.'

He sent bandages, ointment, and some solution on board for use in dressing the hand. That the decision to return to New York was in fact the doctor's seems entirely clear. The captain testified:

'If the doctor saw him four days, every day twice, he must know whether it was necessary to leave him in the hospital, or not. I am not a doctor. I took the doctor's advice. * * * He said if we cleaned the hand every day it would be sufficient for New York.'

On the return voyage the Sarnia touched at Kingston for mail and passengers in the middle of the night and reached New York in seven days. The libelant was at once sent to a hospital, when the hand was found to be in very bad condition, the pus having burrowed extensively...

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5 cases
  • Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Premeaux
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • March 15, 1945
    ... ... Ship's officers, having selected a physician (The Van der Duyn, 2 Cir., 261 F. 887; The Hanna Nielson, 267 F. 729; The Hanna Nielsen, 2 Cir., 273 F. 171; Sanders v. South Atlantic Steamship Co., 49 Ga.App. 716, 176 S.E. 529), or having selected a physician shown to be competent (The Sarnia, 2 Cir., 147 F. 106), can ordinarily follow his medical advice and are not responsible for his errors ... Page 698 ... in judgment, though serious. Circumstances, of course, may not permit the application of this rule. The Svealand, 4 Cir., 136 F. 109. Where the employer has exercised care to ... ...
  • De Zon v. American President Lines
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • April 5, 1943
    ... ... 4 We express no opinion upon whether charitable or gratuitous nature of medical attention should have exculpatory effect. Cf. President and Directors of Georgetown College v. Hughes, App.D.C., 130 F.2d 810. 5 Cf. The Sarnia, 2 Cir., 147 F. 106; The C. S. Holmes, D.C., 209 F. 970; Bonam v. Southern Menhaden Corp., D.C., 284 F. 360 (involving physicians other than ship's doctors) ... 6 Johnson v. American Mail Line, 1937, A.M.C. 1267 (Superior Court for King County, Washington), reached the opposite conclusion, ... ...
  • The Cuzco
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • April 30, 1907
    ... ... LACOMBE, ... Circuit Judge ... We ... recently had occasion to consider the subject of a ... shipmaster's duty when a member of his crew is injured ... while the vessel is at sea or remote from medical aid ... Greco v. The Sarnia, 147 F. 106, 77 C.C.A. 332. That ... case, however, ... [154 F. 178] ... differs from the one at bar because medical advice was ... procurable as quickly by going forward as by deviating ... The ... situation of the vessel at the time libelant sustained his ... injury was as ... ...
  • The Van der Duyn
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • July 3, 1918
    ... ... unseaworthiness, and for failure of the officers to correct y ... diagnose his injury, or to give him proper care. An action ... will not lie against the ship for an error of diagnosis on ... the part of the officers with respect to an injury to one of ... the crew. The Sarnia, 147 F. 106. Nor does the libelant in ... this case make out, by a preponderance of testimony, his ... contention that transfer to a hospital at Havana would have ... resulted in any better permanent restoration of his arm, ... after the fracture had been treated by operation, which ... ...
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