Amador v. A/S J. Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi

• Decision Date: 01 July 1955
• Docket Number: Docket 23323.,No. 313,313
• Citation: 224 F.2d 437
• Parties: Manuel AMADOR, Appellant, v. A/S J. LUDWIG MOWINCKELS REDERI, Appellee. THE RONDA.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

224 F.2d 437 (1955)

Manuel AMADOR, Appellant, v. A/S J. LUDWIG MOWINCKELS REDERI, Appellee THE RONDA.

No. 313, Docket 23323.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued May 11, 1955.

Decided July 1, 1955.

Robert Klonsky, New York City, and Philip F. Di Costanzo, Brooklyn, N. Y. (Klonsky & Steinman, New York City, of counsel), for appellant.

James M. Estabrook and Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens, New York City (Francis X. Byrn, New York City, of counsel), for appellee.

Albert P. Thill and Thomas F. Keane, Brooklyn, N. Y., for Commercial Stevedoring Co., Inc., respondent-appellee-impleaded.

Before HAND, SWAN and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

HAND, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree in the admiralty of Judge Clancy, dismissing a libel in rem and in personam against a motor vessel and its owner, to recover for personal injuries suffered by a long-shoreman during the discharge of the vessel in New York. The owner impleaded the stevedoring company which had employed the libellant, basing its claim upon an indemnity contract; but since the libellant's libel was dismissed, it was unnecessary for Judge Clancy to pass upon that claim. The libellant was a member of a stevedore gang working in a lower hold of the vessel, when a heavy coil of wire was dislodged through the carelessness of other members of the gang and fell upon him, causing him severe injuries. The libel is based upon the theory that the cargo was so stowed as to make the ship unseaworthy, and that she and her owner were liable regardless of the negligence of the stevedoring gang.

The first five findings, which we quote, eliminating one erroneous statement, state in detail what happened, and they are not clearly erroneous.

"1. In March, 1951, the S. S. Ronda, owned by respondent A/S J. Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi, took aboard at Antwerp in her No. 4 hold a cargo of steel strips. The hold was fifty-six feet long and wide, the hatch opening 32.6 feet long and twenty feet wide and the strips about twenty feet long so that approximately half of their length stowed lay immediately under the hatch coaming. The steel was stowed to a height in excess of eight feet so that it was something over the top on both sides of the 8 foot high shaft tunnel. The hold itself was 22 feet deep and above it, the tweendeck was 12 feet.

"2. The vessel proceeded to Havre and there put aboard in the No. 4 hold something in excess of two thousand coils of steel wire, each one of which weighed 159 pounds, the width of the wire being 6 inches and of the coil about 3 feet. They were laid on dunnage at the bottom of the hold and married, the first tier resting at an angle on a coil laid flat at the side of the hold with the tier above laid at an angle in the other direction so that each tier helped to secure the members of the tier beneath and that above. This process resulted in what was called a `married\' stow. Above each three tiers a layer of dunnage was laid thwartships so that there were three in all, the number of tiers being altogether about twelve. Double dunnage was laid in the wings. When the stow was completed the height of the coils was two or three feet higher than the steel and general cargo was laid on both. The top few feet of the coils was shored by vertical dunnage boards braced against the steel. General cargo, baled and bagged, was in the hold forward of the coils. It was known when the vessel was at Havre that the steel was to be delivered at New York and the wire coils afterwards at Baltimore. While the Ronda encountered generally fair weather on her voyage the sea was sometimes rough and the vessel then pitched and rolled.

"3. The Ronda arrived at New York on the 19th of March, 1951 and the next morning a gang of stevedores, employed by the Commercial Stevedoring Company, Inc., the impleaded respondent, went aboard and proceeded to discharge the cargo in the tween-deck section of No. 4 hold as well as at least some of the general cargo in the lower hold. When this was completed, the discharge of the strip steel cargo was started and proceeded during the rest of that day. The steel strips were taken out by eight men divided into two gangs of four, one of which operated on the port side and the other on the starboard. A number of the strips, approximating two and one-half tons, were taken out at a time in a sling. The sling was sent aloft on the ship\'s crane by the gang working on one side while the gang on the other side was preparing the next draft for discharge. The process was to lift the end of the draft under the hatch opening to a point where it was higher than the coil cargo, whereupon the rope attached to the rear end of the draft would be tightened and the whole draft swung to a position under the hatch opening, lifted and put upon the dock. No guide line or backstop was used by either gang.

"4. It is found as a fact that from the beginning of the discharge of the steel this method of the stevedores\' operation caused frequent collisions between the ends of some of the drafts and the coiled wire. The assistant operating manager of the ship\'s agent who also was general superintendent of Commercial Stevedoring Company authorized the boss of the stevedoring gangs working in the No. 4 hold to remove so much of the coil cargo as would at any time appear necessary to facilitate the discharge. * * * None of it was removed by the stevedores who persisted in maintaining the practice we have stated.

"5. In the early afternoon of March 21, libellant, who was a member of the stevedore gang operating in No. 4 hold, while engaged in passing a loop of rope under what was intended to be a draft of the steel strips and while his back was turned to the coil cargo, was struck by one or several of some dozen coils which were dislodged and fell from the top two tiers of the stow. He was severely injured. The dislodgment of the coils was caused by successive collisions between the ends of the drafts of steel strips as the drafts were lifted and

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