Freitas v. Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company
| Decision Date | 14 January 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 13902.,13902. |
| Citation | 218 F.2d 562 |
| Parties | Joe FREITAS, Appellant, v. PACIFIC-ATLANTIC STEAMSHIP COMPANY, a corporation, and Marine Terminals Corporation, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Gladstein, Andersen & Leonard, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.
John H. Black, Edward R. Kay, Appel, Lieberman & Leonard, Boyd, Taylor & Reynolds, Fred G. Nave, San Francisco, Cal., for appellees.
Before HEALY and FEE, Circuit Judges, and DRIVER, District Judge.
Appellant sued for damages for personal injuries allegedly caused by the unseaworthiness of appellee's Victory ship, the SS Montana. A jury was empaneled to hear the case. Upon the conclusion of appellant's proof the trial court granted appellee's motion for a dismissal, and judgment was entered thereon. Thus the primary question before us is whether there was evidence of unseaworthiness requiring submission of the issue.
At the time of the accident the Montana was being unloaded by an independent stevedoring firm, namely Marine Terminals Corporation. Appellant was one of the group of stevedores employed by Marine Terminals in the discharge of the ship's cargo. The preliminary arrangements of the ship's gear essential to the discharge, including the removal of hatch covers and strongbacks at the appropriate deck level, were made by the stevedoring gang. The hatches through which the unloading was carried on were covered with hatch boards when closed. Large steel strongbacks supported the hatch boards. Strongbacks rest in vertical slots on the hatch combings, and those on the Montana were secured in their slots by a ratchet-type lock at each end.
In preparation for the removal of cargo the longshoremen uncovered a portion of the main deck hatch and then removed two of the five strongbacks covering the hatch on the shelter deck, the next deck below. Three of the strongbacks and the hatch boards covering them were left in place. The cargo was being discharged from the lower 'tween deck, the second deck below the main deck, and a winch was being used by members of the longshore gang to raise the cargo to the main deck. Lighting conditions in the hold were very good and the winch operator could look directly down into it. A scow flat containing two handcars for use in cargo removal had been lowered into the hold and had been pushed forward by the stevedores out of their way into the covered portion of the hold. The injury occurred after appellant and his work partner had attached four cables to the scow, which with the handcars aboard was to be lifted from the lower 'tween deck through the two partially uncovered hatches to the main deck. Because the scow flat was under the portion of the shelter deck hatch which had not been uncovered, the winch pulled it up at an angle; and as a result the shackle connecting the four cables to the hook caught against the lower side of the middle strongback of the shelter deck hatch. The winch operator failed to perceive the hooked condition until the strongback had been pulled from its supporting slots. The strongback and the hatch boards which it had been supporting fell to the lower 'tween deck, and one of the hatch boards struck appellant in the back.
The complaint alleged unseaworthiness in three respects, (1) that the locking mechanism of the strongback was defective and unseaworthy, (2) that at the time of the accident the strongback was not properly locked in position, and (3) that the strongback itself was in a faulty and defective condition and did not fit into the slots designed for it. Appellant produced no evidence in support of any of these claims, nor was there evidence tending to show that proper equipment could have withstood the pull of the winch. The evidence established that the locks were in their locked position, and that the same type of lock is used on a number of other ships. It was also shown that a purpose of such locks is to prevent accidents of the nature occurring here, and that a strongback may be pulled from...
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