Anderson v. The Ravensdale

• Decision Date: 02 March 1894
• Parties: THE RAVENSDALE. v. THE RAVENSDALE et al. ANDERSON
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

63 F. 624

THE RAVENSDALE.

ANDERSON v. THE RAVENSDALE et al.

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

March 2, 1894

Hyland & Zabriskie, for libelant.

Convers & Kirlin, for the Ravensdale.

Charles C. Nadal, for Roberts Bros.

BROWN District Judge.

On the 16th of February, 1891, while the lighter Georgia Pine was lying alongside the steamer Ravensdale, at the Atlantic basin, and delivering a cargo of boards to the steamer, the libelant, who was captain of the lighter, and was assisting a gang of men employed by Roberts Bros., stevedores, in hoisting the boards upon the steamer, was severely injured by the fall of a part of one of the drafts, just before it was hauled over the steamer's rail. One of the vertibrae of his back was dislocated, causing incurable paralysis of both the lower limbs. The above libel was filed to recover for the damages against the Ravensdale, and the stevedores who were loading her.

The boards were hauled up in drafts of 25 or 30 boards. There is contradiction whether these were secured by a sling, passed around them with a double turn, or whether the fall rope itself was run twice round and then hooked to the same rope without a sling. This fall ran to a block attached to a boom rigged to the steamer's mast, and from thence was operated by a winch on board the steamer. The boom was designed to swing out when the draft was to be taken up, so as to keep the draft free from contact with the side of the ship, and to swing in as soon as the draft was above the rail. The top of the steamer's rail was from 10 to 15 feet above the load of boards on the deck of the lighter. The boards were from 12 to 14 feet long, and were fastened by the rope or sling at about two-thirds of the length towards the upper end of the draft.

The libelant contends that the draft by which he was injured, as well as others before it, caught against the projecting parts of the steamer's side, or against the projection of the rail, which was from one to two inches; that this liability ought to have been guarded against by the use of a skid; and that the catching of the upper end of the draft loosened the hold of the rope around it, and caused the boards to fall.

The defendants contend that there was no projection on the ship's side, save the slight projection of the rail which was rounded; that the ship had skids, but that they were not used, because it was not customary or necessary to use them...