Crawford v. The Wells City
| Decision Date | 08 February 1889 |
| Citation | 38 F. 47 |
| Parties | CRAWFORD v. THE WELLS CITY. [1] |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
E. B Convers, for the steam-ship.
This action is brought to recover damages for injuries received by the libelant while he was engaged in trimming grain in the hold of the steam-ship Wells City, through the falling upon him of one of the ship's hatch-covers. The libelant was a grain-trimmer, employed by a contractor to work in trimming the cargo of grain then being loaded on board the steam-ship. At the time of the accident the trimming was finished all but leveling off the grain under the hatch. The spout had been removed, and, as it was raining hard, the mate of the ship directed three of the crew to put on the hatch-covers. The mate was at the time in the hold with the libelant. When the placing of the covers in position was commenced, warning seems to have been given to the men in the hold, and they stepped out from under the hatch in order to be out of danger. While they were out of the hatch, the covers were all put in position, and thereby the hold was so darkened as to indicate to persons below that the covers were in place. Accordingly the mate motioned the libelant that it was time for him to resume work, and the libelant, with others thereupon stepped back into the hatch, to conclude his work of trimming the grain in the hatchway. After the men had stepped back under the hatch, however, two of the sailors undertook to spring two of the hatch-covers together; the covers having failed to go home when laid down. In doing this, one of the men lifted one of the covers, and the other lifted the other, and placed their edges together. Each cover weighed about 70 pounds, and they were very greasy at the time, owing to the dampened dust arising from the grain. While the covers were thus being sprung together, one of them slipped, and fell into the hold below, striking the libelant, and causing the injuries for which he now sues.
Several points are made on the part of the defense. One is that the libelant was at the time of the accident the servant of the claimant, engaged in a common employment with the sailors who undertook to place the cover in position, and therefore cannot recover for negligence of a fellow-servant. Upon this point my opinion is that the relation of fellow-servant did not exist between the libelant and the mate who directed the placing of the covers, or between...
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The ANACES
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