Alexander v. Meiji Kaiun KK
| Decision Date | 14 July 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 4160.,4160. |
| Citation | 195 F. Supp. 831 |
| Parties | Joseph ALEXANDER, Libelant, v. MEIJI KAIUN K. K., Respondent, v. Strachan Shipping Company, Respondent Impleaded. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
August J. Bubert, John P. Nelson, Jr., Leonard S. Ungar, New Orleans, La., for libelant.
Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke & Hopkins, Leon Sarpy, James G. Burke, Jr., New Orleans, La., for respondent.
William H. McClendon, Jr., Stuart A. McClendon, New Orleans, La., for respondent-impleaded.
Presenting facts strongly reminiscent of Grillea v. United States1 the libelant, a longshoreman, claims damages against the respondent, owners of the Steamship Meiryu Maru, for injuries received while engaged in loading bales of cotton into the No. 5 hold of that vessel. Respondent has impleaded the stevedoring contractor, libelant's employer, alleging that any unseaworthy condition for which it may be liable was created by the stevedore.
Cotton is brought aboard vessels in the port of New Orleans three bales at a time on a pallet. Using ship's gear, the pallet is lowered into the hold through the hatch opening. When it arrives on the lower deck, or on the last tier of bales loaded which serves as a deck, the cotton is pushed on the pallet, while still in the sling, as near as may be to the place where it will be stowed.
Each tier of the cotton must be level, not only to keep the cotton from "rocking" in the stow, but also to provide a platform from which the longshoremen may load the next tier. In order to keep the tiers level, it is necessary to use dunnage toward the skin of the ship, particularly near the turn of the bilge where the end bale of cotton is not supported by the tier below. The tiers of cotton are tightened by "marrying" the center bales, that is, by forcing the two center bales in place at the same time. If holes in the tier nevertheless remain, those holes must be covered by dunnage, not only to support the next tier of cotton, but also to provide a safe and even platform from which the longshoremen may load that tier.
On May 1, 1958, libelant and a crew of longshoremen employed by respondent-impleaded were in the No. 5 hold loading cotton. They had completed three tiers and were working on the fourth when libelant's steel hook, which is used to move the bales of cotton, slipped out of a bale, throwing libelant backward and into a hole which then existed between the bales in the third tier. He was assisted out of the hole by his fellow workers and the Japanese mate of the vessel who was supervising the loading.
Libelant relies on the now well defined line of jurisprudence which makes a vessel liable to a longshoreman for unseaworthiness, including unseaworthiness created by the longshoremen themselves.2 The confusion concerning the length of time the unseaworthiness must exist, before liability therefor may be imposed, has now been cleared and the only question remaining is, was the vessel unseaworthy in fact at the time of the accident.3
The jurisprudence applicable to the facts here places respondents in a most difficult position. Admittedly libelant was hurt when he fell in the third tier of the cotton. Since this third tier of cotton was used by the longshoremen as a platform for loading the fourth, under the law it was required to be a reasonably safe place to work. Otherwise the vessel was unseaworthy.4 Respondents say it was reasonably safe, that holes in the stow of cotton are inevitable and that a longshoreman must protect himself from such holes by making certain he does not step in one. This, they say, was the proximate cause of libelant's accident: libelant negligently, without looking, fell in a hole and hurt himself.
The facts show that libelant fell backward into the hole when his hook slipped from a bale of cotton. Whether the bale of cotton was rotten or poorly packed, as libelant sought to show, and consequently afforded an uncertain subject for libelant's hook, is beside the point. Inevitably, in handling cotton, even good cotton, hooks will slip and men will stumble backward. And if there are holes present in the stow large enough to receive a man, he will doubtless stumble into a hole.
Bales of cotton, of course, cannot be packed airtight. Small holes can be expected to exist in the stow. But all the evidence, including respondents', shows that when holes large enough to receive a man appear in the stow, those holes should be covered by dunnage.5 It was the failure to cover the hole into which libelant fell with dunnage that was the proximate cause of the accident.
Since the hole in the stow made the platform provided by the third tier of cotton an unsafe place for libelant to work, the vessel is unseaworthy and her owners are liable for the damages caused by that unseaworthiness. Since the unseaworthiness was created by the employees of respondent-impleaded, the claim over must be recognized.6
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Calderone v. NAVIERA VACUBA S/A
...restricted the effect of Brabazon in Knox v. United States Lines Co., 294 F.2d 354, 359 (3d Cir. 1961). 40 Compare Alexander v. Meiji Kaiun K.K., 195 F.Supp. 831 (E.D.La.1961); Morris v. Blue Star Lines, 193 F.Supp. 763 (D.Or.1961); Holley v. The Manfred Stansfield, 186 F.Supp. 212 (E.D.Va.......
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Saleeby v. Kingsway Tankers, Inc.
...141 F.Supp. 431, 435 (S.D.N.Y.1956). See also Baker v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 502 F.2d 638, 644 (6th Cir. 1974); Alexander v. Meiji, 195 F.Supp. 831, 834 (E.D.La.1961). We The plaintiff has a duty to mitigate by returning to work or by obtaining new work in other fields which are compat......
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Venable v. A/S Det Forenede Dampskibsselskab
...Certainly the spaces may present a hazard to the longshoremen and thus constitute an unseaworthy condition. See Alexander v. Meiji Kaiun K. K., 195 F.Supp. 831 (E.D.La. 1961); aff'd sub nom. Strachan Shipping Co. v. Alexander, 311 F.2d 385 (5th Cir. 1962). Compare Nuzzo v. Rederi, 304 F.2d ......
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Venable v. A/S Det Forenede Dampskibsselskab
...Co. v. Alexander, 311 F.2d 385 (5 Cir., 1962), is misplaced. When we examine the opinion of the trial court, Alexander v. Meiji Kaiun K.K., 195 F.Supp. 831 (E.D.La., 1961), we find that the hole in which the longshoreman fell was large enough to receive his body and, according to all of the......