Boudoin v. Lykes Brothers Steamship Co

• Decision Date: 28 February 1955
• Docket Number: No. 406,406
• Citation: 75 S.Ct. 382,1955 A.M.C. 488,348 U.S. 336,99 L.Ed. 354
• Parties: Elie J. BOUDOIN, Petitioner, v. LYKES BROTHERS STEAMSHIP CO., Inc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

348 U.S. 336

75 S.Ct. 382

99 L.Ed. 354

Elie J. BOUDOIN, Petitioner,

v LYKES BROTHERS STEAMSHIP CO., Inc.

No. 406.

Argued Feb. 11, 1955.

Decided Feb. 28, 1955.

Mr.

Raymond H. Kierr, New Orleans, La., for petitioner.

Mr. Andrew R. Martinez, New Orleans, La., for respondent.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit by an American seaman against the owner and operator of an ocean freighter, the Mason Lykes, on which he was formerly employed. He based his claim for recovery both on negligence and on breach of the warranty of seaworthiness. The case was tried by the court upon waiver of jury. The District Court found for the plaintiff, holding that the shipowner breached its warranty of seaworthiness and that its officers were negligent. 112 F.Supp. 177. The Court of Appeals reversed, 211 F.2d 618. We granted certiorari to resolve a seeming conflict between that opinion and Keen v. Overseas Tankship Corp., 194 F.2d 515, decided by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 348 U.S. 814, 75 S.Ct. 73.

Plaintiff was employed in the engine department as an oiler. The ship had a deck maintenance man, named Manuel Gonzales. Plaintiff's injury was inflicted by Gonzales who, during the course of a night's drinking party, went to plaintiff's room and took a bottle of brandy from under plaintiff's bed. Plaintiff awoke, startled; and Gonzales attacked him with the bottle, causing severe injuries.

The District Court placed liability for breach of the warranty of seaworthiness on the holding of the Keen case, where Judge Learned Hand wrote:

'The warranty of seaworthiness as to hull and gear has never meant that the ship shall withstand every violence of wind and weather; all it means is that she shall be reasonably fit for the voyage in question. Applied to a seaman, such a warranty is, not that the seaman is competent to meet all contingencies; but that he is equal in disposition and seamanship to the ordinary men in the calling.' 194 F.2d 518.

The District Court found that Gonzales was not 'equal in disposition and seamanship to the ordinary men in the calling'. (112 F.Supp. 180.)

The assault by Gonzales on plaintiff occurred in the early morning of November 25, 1949. This happened during the course of a drinking party on board in which much liquor was consumed, Gonzales drinking nearly a fifth. Gonzales was, indeed, drunk when he assaulted plaintiff. The evidence is disputed; but the District Court found that shortly after Gonzales struck plaintiff with the bottle, he returned with a large knife which he also intended to use on him. When plaintiff was taken to the ship's hospital, Gonzales created a disturbance outside—threatening the mate, trying to enter the sick-bay, and offering to give blood to plaintiff for a transfusion. Those events followed on the heels of the assault.

About six hours after the assault, Gonzales was ordered to the master's cabin, where he refused to make any statement about the assault. Later he was ordered to clean the ship's hospital. Instead of doing that, he left the ship against orders. Early in the afternoon Gonzales returned to the ship with bottles of liquor at which time the captain apprehended him, took the bottles away, and placed him in irons—a step which the captain testified he seldom used.

The next day, November 26, Gonzales left the vessel without leave and did not return until the morning of November 28, when he was logged for disobedience of orders and fined for being absent without leave. On return of the Mason Lykes to the United States, Gonzales was discharged by the captain, though, since that time, he has served on respondent's vessels.

On the basis of these facts, the District Court found that Gonzales was 'a person of dangerous propensities and proclivities' at the time of his assault on plaintiff; that Gonzales was 'a person of violent character, belligerent disposition, excessive drinking habits, disposed to fighting and making threats and assaults.'

We think the record does not warrant rejection of the District Court's findings and that the findings warrant recovery for breach of the warranty of seaworthiness.

The warranty of seaworthiness is a species of liability without fault. The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158, 23 S.Ct. 483, 47 L.Ed. 760; Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85, 90—94, 66 S.Ct. 872, 875—877, 90 L.Ed. 1099. Yet it does not mean that the shipowner is liable for injuries 'resulting from every sailor's brawl', as Judge Learned Hand put it in Jones v. Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., 2 Cir., 204 F.2d 815, 816. It does not mean that the owner is liable every time a seaman gets drunk and does damage to a member of the crew. It does not mean that the owner is liable for injuries from all the fisticuffs on shipboard.

'All men are to some degree irascible; every workman is apt to be angry when a fellow complains of his work to their common superior; and some will harbor their resentment and provoke a quarrel over it even after the lapse of several hours. Sailors lead a rough life and are more apt to use their fists than office employees; what will seem to...