Alcoa Steamship Company v. Perez Rodriguez, 6787.
Decision Date | 20 April 1967 |
Docket Number | No. 6787.,6787. |
Parties | ALCOA STEAMSHIP COMPANY, Inc., Claimant, Appellant, v. Antero PEREZ RODRIGUEZ, Libelant, Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Antonio M. Bird, San Juan, P. R., with whom J. Ward O'Neill, Francis X. Byrn, New York City, Hartzell, Fernande & Novas, San Juan, P. R., and Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens, New York City, were on brief, for appellant.
Harvey B. Nachman, San Juan, P. R., with whom Nachman & Feldstein, San Juan, P. R., was on brief, for appellee.
Before ALDRICH, Chief Judge, and MARIS* and COFFIN, Circuit Judges.
The libelant, Antero Perez Rodriguez, employed as a longshoreman by Alcoa Steamship Company, sustained injuries on one of Alcoa's vessels which it was operating in the navigable waters of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The libelant was awarded compensation by the State Insurance Fund under the Puerto Rico Workmen's Accident Compensation Act.1 He then brought suit in rem in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against Alcoa's vessel alleging that the respondent vessel "had breached its duty and warranty to provide a seaworthy vessel" by reason of which he was injured and he prayed for a decree awarding him damages against the vessel.2 Alcoa, as claimant of the vessel, stipulated that the libelant was precipitated into the lower hold of the vessel from a ladder when the bolts of the ladder parted from the hatch wall which caused libelant's injuries and Alcoa agreed that $53,000 was the reasonable value of the damages sustained by libelant. Accordingly the only question submitted to the district court for its determination was whether the libelant was barred from bringing this action by section 20 of the Puerto Rico Workmen's Accident Compensation Act, 11 L.P.R.A. § 21.
That section provides:
"When an employer insures his workmen or employees in accordance with this chapter, the right herein established to obtain compensation shall be the only remedy against the employer; but in case of accident to, or disease or death of, the workmen or employees not entitled to compensation under this chapter, the liability of the employer is, and shall continue to be, the same as if this chapter did not exist."
The district court held that the action was not barred by Section 20 and entered a judgment in favor of the libelant for $53,000. This appeal by Alcoa followed.
On this appeal Alcoa contends that the district court erred in not following the prior decisions of this court holding that a longshoreman sustaining injuries while unloading his employer's vessel on navigable waters within the territorial limits of Puerto Rico may not maintain an action for unseaworthiness against his employer's vessel when his employer is covered by the Puerto Rico Workmen's Accident Compensation Act. We agree.
In Guerrido v. Alcoa Steamship Co., 1 Cir., 1956, 234 F.2d 349, we had occasion to consider the impact of Congressional enactments upon the Spanish maritime law of Puerto Rico and held that it was the intent of Congress, in giving the Puerto Rico Legislature legislative power over Puerto Rico waters, that the general rules of maritime law as understood in the United States should follow the flag to Puerto Rico waters except to the extent that these rules were rendered locally inapplicable either because they were not designed to apply to Puerto Rico waters or because of inconsistent Puerto Rico legislation. The issue presented in the Guerrido case was whether a longshoreman injured in the territorial waters of Puerto Rico could sue a third party vessel owner by reason of the unseaworthiness of the vessel. We adhered to our holding in Lastra v. New York & Porto Rico S.S. Co., 1 Cir. 1924, 2 F.2d 812, that the Puerto Rico Workmen's Accident Compensation Act applied to maritime workers. Since section 31 of that Act, 11 L.P.R.A. § 32, recognized the right to an action against a third party based on other existing law, we held that in an action by the longshoreman against the vessel owner who was not his employer the local law was not inconsistent with the federal maritime law. We concluded, therefore, that the longshoreman could maintain an action under the federal maritime law against the third party shipowner based upon the unseaworthiness of the vessel.
In Fonseca v. Prann, 1 Cir. 1960, 282 F.2d 153, cert. den. 365 U.S. 860, 81 S.Ct. 826, 5 L.Ed.2d 822, we were faced with the question whether a maritime worker could bring suit under the federal maritime law against his employer and, in view of the exclusive provisions of the local compensation act, we answered that question in the negative.
In Waterman Steamship Corporation v. Rodriguez, 1 Cir. 1961, 290 F.2d 175, 179, which involved an action by a longshoreman employed by a stevedoring company which had been brought against a shipowner for injuries sustained aboard the vessel while lying in the port of San Juan, we adhered to our prior view, saying:
We adhere to the views expressed in our prior opinion to the effect that the Puerto Rico Workmen's Accident Compensation Act has, within the area of its applicability,3 displaced the remedies of the maritime law, including the federal Longshoremen's Act4 and provides the sole remedy of a Puerto Rico longshoreman against his employer for injuries sustained in the course of his employment.5 We have been referred to no Puerto Rico statute or congressional enactment which has modified our holding in the Guerrido case that the local workmen's compensation act supplanted the law of unseaworthiness in respect to locally employed maritime workers. Moreover, particularly in view of the unique status of Puerto Rico, we think that if and when Congress deems it advisable to extend law to Puerto Rico which would otherwise have been inapplicable to that Commonwealth, it will do so in clear and explicit terms. See Royal Indemnity Co. v. Puerto Rico Cement Corp., 1 Cir. 1944, 142 F.2d 237; Defense Bases Act, 42 U.S.C.A....
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