Braen v. Pfeifer Oil Transportation Co

• Decision Date: 14 December 1959
• Docket Number: No. 32,32
• Citation: 4 L.Ed.2d 191,80 S.Ct. 247,361 U.S. 129
• Parties: Christian F. BRAEN, Petitioner, v. PFEIFER OIL TRANSPORTATION CO., Inc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

361 U.S. 129

80 S.Ct. 247

4 L.Ed.2d 191

Christian F. BRAEN, Petitioner,

v PFEIFER OIL TRANSPORTATION CO., Inc.

No. 32.

Argued Nov. 16, 1959.

Decided Dec. 14, 1959.

Mr. Benjamin H. Siff, New York City, for petitioner.

Mr. Edmund F. Lamb, New York City, for respondent.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner brought this suit under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, and recovered judgment after a jury trial. He was employed as mate on respondent's barge. On the day prior to the injury the barge came to respondent's repair yard to have a cargo pump fixed. At this repair yard respondent maintained a covered lighter, known as the Winisook, which was used as a work barge. Its inshore side was connected with the dock by a plank runway. Between the Winisook and the dock was a raft used for chipping, painting, and welding on such barges as might need that service. The barge on which petitioner worked was not at this time being serviced by the raft. But the raft had been used in repair work on the barge at other times and now needed new decking.

The barge was moored to adjoin the open water side of the Winisook, the crew of the barge using a catwalk around the sides of the Winisook whenever they left or boarded the barge. The morning after the barge was moored, petitioner's supervisor ordered him to lay some decking on the raft, as petitioner had experience as a carpenter. Petitioner accordingly prepared to go to work on this new job assignment. As he was standing on the catwalk, preparatory to starting his work, releasing a line on the raft to permit him to maneuver it into place so he could board it, the catwalk gave way, causing the injury. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment for petitioner. 263 F.2d 147. We granted the petition for certiorari because that decision seemed to be out of line with the authorities. 359 U.S. 952, 79 S.Ct. 740, 3 L.Ed.2d 760.

In O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Co., 318 U.S. 36, 63 S.Ct. 488, 87 L.Ed. 596, a seaman was allowed to recover under the Jones Act even though he was injured on shore. The seaman was a deckhand. The ship was discharging her cargo through a conduit that was connected at its outer end to a land pipe by means of a gasket. The seaman in question was ordered by the master to go ashore to assist in repairing the gasket. While so engaged, he was injured by reason of the negligence of a fellow employee. We held that the words 'in the course of his employment' as used in the Jones Act were not restricted to injuries occurring on navigable waters, that they were broadly used by Congress in support of 'all the constitutional power it possessed,' id., 318 U.S. at page 39, 63 S.Ct. at page 490, and that it was constitutionally permissible for Congress to supplement the remedy of maintenance and cure by extending a right of recovery in trial by jury to a seaman injured 'while in the service of his vessel by negligence.' Id., 318 U.S. at page 43, 63 S.Ct. at page 492.

The test, as the O'Donnell case holds, is not whether the injury occurred on navigable waters, for that had been applied by the lower court, id., 318 U.S. at page 38, 63 S.Ct. at page 490, which we reversed. Rather it is whether the seaman was injured by negligence while 'in the course of his employment.'

The injured party must of course have 'status as a member of the vessel' for it is seamen, not others who may work on the vessel (Swanson v. Marra Bros., 328 U.S. 1, 4, 66 S.Ct. 869, 871, 90 L.Ed. 1045), to whom Congress extended the protection of the Jones Act. Nice questions often arise concerning the status of particular workmen and whether their duties give them the status of 'seamen' as that word is used in the Act. Desper v. Starved Rock Ferry Co., 342 U.S. 187, 72 S.Ct. 216, 96 L.Ed. 205. And see Gianfala v. Texas Co., 350 U.S. 879, 76 S.Ct. 141, 100 L.Ed. 775, reversing 5 Cir., 222 F.2d 382; Senko v. LaCrosse Dredging Corp., 352 U.S. 370, 77 S.Ct. 415, 1 L.Ed.2d 404; Butler v. Whiteman, 356 U.S. 271, 78 S.Ct. 734, 2 L.Ed.2d 754. The court below apparently thought that at the moment petitioner was injured he was not a 'seaman'; and that conclusion apparently turned on its view that to be such he had to be engaged at the time of the injury in work which was in furtherance of the navigation of the vessel. The court, indeed, held it error not to have given instructions to that effect.

At times the work done by an employee will be crucial in determining what his status is for purposes of recovery. South Chicago Coal & Dock Co. v. Bassett, 309 U.S. 251, 260, 60 S.Ct. 544, 549, 84 L.Ed. 732; Swanson v. Marra Bros., supra; Desper v. Starved Rock Ferry Co., supra; Pennsylvania R. Co. v. O'Rourke, 344 U.S. 334, 73 S.Ct. 302, 97 L.Ed. 367; Grimes v. Raymond Concrete Pile Co., 356 U.S. 252, 78 S.Ct. 687, 2 L.Ed.2d 737; Butler v. Whiteman, supra. Those cases, however, are not relevant to our present problem since the question whether petitioner's duties on the raft assignment were of the type to bring one not otherwise a member of a ship's crew within the scope of the Act is not presented in this case. Here we start with an employee who had the status of mate. The issue is whether petitioner, a mate and therefore a 'seaman,' was injured 'in the course of his employment.' We conclude that he was.

The fact that the injury did not occur on the vessel is not controlling, as Senko v. LaCrosse Dredging Corp., supra, 352 U.S. 373, 77 S.Ct. 417, holds. A 'seaman' may often be sent off ship to perform duties of his employment. O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Co., supra. In Marceau v. Great Lakes Transit Corp., 2 Cir., 146 F.2d 416, a ship's cook was allowed to recover under the Jones Act when, pursuant to duty, he was returning to the ship and was injured on the dock while approaching a ladder used as ingress to the vessel.

We held that a seaman who was injured on the dock while departing from the ship on shore leave was in the service of the vessel and was entitled to recover for maintenance and cure in Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co., 318 U.S. 724, 63 S.Ct. 930, 87 L.Ed. 1107. It was there recognized that a seaman is as much in the service of his ship when boarding it on first reporting for duty, quitting it on being discharged, or going to and from the ship while on shore leave, as he is while on board at high sea. Id., 318 U.S. at pages 736—737, 63 S.Ct. at pages 936—937. We also held that a seaman injured in a dance hall while on shore leave was in the service of his ship in Warren v. United States, 340 U.S. 523, 529, 71 S.Ct. 432, 436, 95 L.Ed. 503. These two cases were not brought under the Jones Act but involved maintenance and cure. Yet they make clear that the scope of a seaman's employment or the activities which are related to the furtherance of the vessel are not measured by the standards applied to land-based employment relationships. They also supply relevant guides to the meaning of the term 'course of employment' under the Act since it is the equivalent of the 'service of the ship' formula used in maintenance and cure cases. See Gilmore and Black, The Law of Admiralty, p. 284. And see O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Co., supra, 318 U.S. at page 43, 63 S.Ct. at page 492; Marceau v. Great Lakes Transit Corp., supra.

Petitioner in the present case was ordered by a superior to perform some carpentry work on a raft which lay between the lighter and the dock. Petitioner was injured, as we have said, while on the catwalk attempting to move the raft into position for boarding. The raft was used to facilitate chipping, painting and welding on respondent's vessels. Cf. Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, 257 U.S. 469, 42 S.Ct. 157, 66 L.Ed. 321. New decking was to be installed on the raft. The fact that the raft was not presently being used to repair respondent's barge is in our view immaterial. Petitioner was acting 'in the course of his employment' at the time of the injury, for at that moment he was doing the work of his employer pursuant to his employer's orders. No more is required by the Jones Act, as the O'Donnell case indicates, petitioner being a seaman who was injured as a consequence of the negligence of his employer.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed and the judgment of the District Court is reinstated.

So ordered.

Judgment of Court of Appeals reversed and judgment of District Court reinstated.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, whom Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER and Mr. Justice WHITTAKER join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.

To assert a right of action under the Jones Act, a plaintiff must not only be a seaman, that is, a 'member of a crew of any vessel,' but must have been injured 'in the course of his employment.' 46 U.S.C. § 688, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688; 33 U.S.C. § 903(a)(1), 33 U.S.C.A. § 903(a)(1). Petitioner was concededly a member of the crew of a vessel at the time the events in question took place. The controverted issue is whether a jury could have found that he was injured 'in the course of his employment.' I cannot agree that the nature of a seaman's duties at the time of injury is irrelevant to this latter issue.

Until today it has not been intimated in any opinion of the Court that I know of that a seaman may recover under the Jones Act for injuries arising out of activities unrelated to the maintenance or operation of his vessel, and not incidental to its affairs. In other words, the status of being a seaman does not alone bring the Jones Act into play. The character of the activities giving rise to the injury complained of is also an indispensable element to the existence of a federal right to relief under this statute. In the O'Donnell case, 318 U.S. 36, at pages 42—43, 63 S.Ct. 488, at page 492, 87 L.Ed. 596, cited by the Court, it was stated: 'The right of recovery in the Jones Act is given to the seaman as such, and * * * depends * * * on the nature of the service and its relationship to the operation of the vessel plying in navigable...