Berge v. National Bulk Carriers Corp., 106
| Decision Date | 10 January 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 106,Docket 24673.,106 |
| Citation | 251 F.2d 717 |
| Parties | Gunnleik BERGE, Appellant, v. NATIONAL BULK CARRIERS CORP. and Todd Shipyards Corp., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Jack Steinman, New York City, for appellant, Harry H. Lipsig, New York City, on the brief.
Victor S. Cichanowicz, Frederick H. Cunningham, New York City, for National Bulk Carriers Corp., appellee.
Patrick E. Gibbons, Galli & Locker, New York City, for third-party defendant, Todd Shipyards Corp., Patrick J. McCann, New York City, of counsel.
Before HAND, HINCKS and LUMBARD, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment for the defendant entered by Judge Murphy in an action to recover for personal injuries. At the conclusion of the evidence the parties agreed that the only issue to be submitted to the jury was the assessment of damages, the question of defendants' liabilities being reserved for determination of the court. Upon the following facts, Judge Murphy held that the plaintiff who was a rigger employed by the defendant Todd Shipyards had not proved his claim. The ship, Bulklube, was a tanker, owned by the National Bulk Carriers, Inc., which in 1952 decided to reconstruct her and rebuild her in accordance with the standards by the United States Coast Guard and the American Bureau of Shipping as a ship of general carriage. The owner made a contract with Todd Shipyards Corporation to take the vessel to its own shipyard and rebuild her in accordance with approved plans and specifications. This work required removing her decks, burning out partitions and bulkheads which divided her into twenty-three tanks, making new bulkheads and new partitions, putting them in place, renewing the longitudinal and deck beams, reconditioning her engines, boilers, steering gear and all other machinery. As stated in Judge Murphy's opinion, the work amounted "to a virtual rebuilding of the interior of the vessel." 148 F.Supp. 611 The accident happened because while the plaintiff and several other men were working below deck in one of the tanks of the ship, engaged in installing a tank bulkhead in place of the former one, he stood upon a scaffold about 15 feet above the bottom of the tank and was pulling a hoist to raise the new bulkhead into position. During this operation the shackle pin between the hoist and the under-deck "padeye" broke and the chain part of the tackle fell hitting the plaintiff and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Halecki v. United New York & New Jersey SHP Ass'n
...or needs to be treated, like a seaman. That such general characterization is not a solution is emphasized by Berge v. National Bulk Carriers Corp., 2 Cir., 251 F.2d 717. There the same panel of this court holds unanimously that there is no warranty of seaworthiness to a rigger, engaged in i......
-
Filipek v. Moore-McCormack Lines
...the ship's crew and to those, such as longshoremen, who do work traditionally done by members of the crew. See Berge v. National Bulk Carriers Corp., 2 Cir., 1958, 251 F.2d 717, certiorari denied 356 U.S. 958, 78 S.Ct. 994, 2 L.Ed.2d 1066; Halecki v. United New York & New Jersey Sandy Hook ......
-
Union Carbide Corporation v. Goett
...certiorari denied 354 U.S. 938, 77 S.Ct. 1400, 1 L.Ed.2d 1537; West v. United States, D.C.E.D.Pa., 143 F.Supp. 473; Berge v. National Bulk Carriers, 2 Cir., 251 F.2d 717. Cf. Halecki v. United New York and Skovgaard v. The M/V In Sieracki, Hawn and Petterson, the vessels were in the general......
-
Atkins v. Greenville Shipbuilding Corporation
...Oilfield Service, 5 Cir. 1967, 377 F.2d 511; Union Carbide Corporation v. Goett, 4 Cir. 1958, 256 F.2d 449; Berge v. National Bulk Carriers Corporation, 2 Cir. 1958, 251 F.2d 717; Berryhill v. Pacific Far East Line, 9 Cir. 1956, 238 F.2d 385. By the same token, the craft or structure said t......