Beeler v. Alaska Aggregate Corp., 19188.
| Decision Date | 28 September 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 19188.,19188. |
| Citation | 336 F.2d 108 |
| Parties | George BEELER, Appellant, v. ALASKA AGGREGATE CORPORATION, a corporation, Appellee, Foss Launch and Tug Company, a corporation, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Philip A. Levin, Pozzi, Levin & Wilson, Portland, Or., for appellant.
Floyd A. Fredrickson, Gray, Fredrickson & Heath, Portland, Or., for appellee.
Before MADDEN, Judge of the Court of Claims, and HAMLEY and JERTBERG, Circuit Judges.
George Beeler, a longshoreman, injured while working on Foss Barge 204, filed a libel in personam for personal injuries against Foss Launch and Tug Company and Alaska Aggregate Corporation, alleging that the barge had been unseaworthy. The tug company is the owner of Foss Barge 204, and Alaska Aggregate Corporation was the bareboat charterer of that barge. After trial, the district court entered a decree dismissing the libel. Beeler appeals from that part of the decree which dismissed the libel against Alaska Aggregate Corporation.1
The district court found that Beeler was injured on August 27, 1961, while he was engaged in loading the barge on navigable waters of the United States at Portland, Oregon. Just prior to the accident Beeler, and other longshoremen employed by Portland Stevedoring Company, were unloading trailer houses on top of half houses previously loaded on the deck of the barge. When it became necessary for Beeler and his fellow longshoremen to descend to the deck, the walking boss, an employee of the stevedoring company, moved an ordinary straight wooden ladder into position. He then stood on deck in front of the ladder ready to grab it in the event the ladder slipped or moved while it was in use.
When Brown, one of Beeler's fellow longshoremen, reached the third or fourth rung from the bottom of the ladder, Beeler mounted the ladder and started to descend. As Brown reached the deck, the walking boss, believing that Brown would stand by or would hold the ladder, walked away. Brown, having received no instruction of this kind, failed to hold or guard the bottom of the ladder. The ladder slipped and Beeler fell to the deck sustaining serious injuries for which he now seeks recovery.
The court further found that where a ladder is to be used for a short period of time, it is the custom and practice for longshoremen to have one of their group hold the ladder rather than to lash it to the deck or to another...
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