Fauntleroy v. Argonaut SS Line
| Decision Date | 12 June 1928 |
| Docket Number | No. 2707.,2707. |
| Citation | 27 F.2d 50 |
| Parties | FAUNTLEROY v. ARGONAUT S. S. LINE, Inc., et al. THE PACIFIC. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
George T. Mister, of Baltimore, Md., for appellant.
Frank B. Ober, of Baltimore, Md. (Janney, Ober, Slingluff & Williams and Robert Stinson, all of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellee Argonaut S. S. Line, Inc.
L. Vernon Miller and Fendall Marbury, both of Baltimore, Md. (William L. Marbury, of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellee Atlantic Coast Shipping Co., Inc.
Before PARKER and NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judges, and GRONER, District Judge.
Libelant was a winchman employed by the Shipping Company to load the steamship Pacific, then lying at a local dock in Baltimore harbor. The loading was begun on Monday, and he sustained an injury on the following Saturday, while working the winch at No. 2 hatch, by the fall of the barrel of an iron turnbuckle from aloft. The turnbuckle consisted of a barrel with right and left hand screws and two eye bolts, one in the cross-tree and one in the head of the Samson or heavy derrick boom. It was one of a pair used to fasten this boom to the cross-tree on the mast some 40 feet above the deck. The barrel was 12 or 14 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter. It had a hole through its middle, into which a rope could be passed to lash it to the mast. The Samson boom was longer and heavier than the regular cargo booms, and was only used in heavy cargo lifts. When at sea, the boom was secured fast against the mast. When about to be used, it was slacked off from the mast and lowered to the position required for operation.
During the week preceding the accident, the ship's smaller cargo booms had been used, but it was intended to use the Samson boom the day succeeding the accident, and this was done. There was evidence on behalf of the vessel that the lashings of the turnbuckles of the Samson boom had been inspected the day before the injury and found in order. The greater weight of the evidence, however, is to the effect that the Samson boom had at some time prior to the accident been lowered by the ship's crew some 7 to 10 feet from the mast, leaving the turnbuckles hanging down from the cross-tree of the mast; the barrel that fell being screwed to the bolt fastened to the cross-tree.
The District Judge was of the opinion that, since there was no evidence directly explanatory of the cause for the falling of the turnbuckle barrel, libelant had failed to discharge his obligation to prove some negligent act on the part of the ship or his employer, the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
United States v. Chesapeake & Delaware Shipyard, Inc.
...out above, this Court concludes that, as explained below, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable. Fauntleroy v. Argonaut S. S. Line, Inc., 27 F.2d 50, 51 (4 Cir. 1928). In order for the injured plaintiff to invoke res ipsa loquitur — which literally means "the thing speaks for itse......
-
Atlantic & Gulf Stevedores, Inc. v. SKIBS A/S DANMOTOR
...standard of care. A guideline case decided upon facts strikingly similar to those of the case at bar was Fauntleroy v. Argonaut S. S. Line, 27 F.2d 50 (4th Cir. 1928). There, the plaintiff winch operator was struck by a falling piece of an iron turnbuckle which was used to fasten a boom to ......
-
Grasso v. Lorentzen
...on its being suitable, its appearance not showing the contrary, without inspection for hidden defects before use. See, Fauntleroy v. Argonaut S.S. Line, 4 Cir., 27 F.2d 50; Liverani v. John T. Clark & Son, 231 N.Y. 178, 131 N.E. But unless this strap was proved to be defective when the stev......
- Croissant v. Adams