Gibbons v. United States
| Decision Date | 22 December 1950 |
| Docket Number | 4499.,No. 4498,4498 |
| Citation | 186 F.2d 488 |
| Parties | GIBBONS v. UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES v. GIBBONS BROS., Inc., et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Stanley H. Rudman, Boston, Mass. (Schneider, Reilly & Bean, Boston, Mass., on brief), for William H. Gibbons.
Thomas H. Walsh, Boston, Mass. (George F. Garrity, U. S. Atty., Edward O. Gourdin, Asst. U. S. Atty., and Leo F. Glynn, all of Boston, Mass., on brief), for United States of America.
Sumner H. Babcock, Boston, Mass. (Edward M. Casey and Bingham, Dana & Gould, Boston, Mass., on brief), for Gibbons Brothers, Inc.
Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and FAHY,* Circuit Judges.
William H. Gibbons, the appellant, filed in the district court a libel in admiralty in personam against the United States. He sought damages for injuries due to an accident he suffered while working on the S. S. Niantic Victory, a merchant vessel owned and operated by the United States in navigable waters in the port of Boston. By petition under the Fifty-sixth Admiralty Rule, 28 U.S.C.A., the United States interpleaded Gibbons Brothers, Inc., whom it had engaged to clean the ship, its cargo having been removed. Libellant, as an employee of Gibbons Brothers, was engaged in this work when the accident occurred.
The court concluded that the injuries received by libellant "were in no way attributable to unseaworthiness of the vessel or fault of the United States as the owner, operator and party in control" of the ship. Judgment accordingly was entered for respondent United States and also for the interpleaded respondent Gibbons Brothers, Inc.
Two appeals are before us, one by the injured libellant, in which the United States is appellee; the other, heard together with the former, is an appeal by the United States, in which Gibbons Brothers, Inc. is appellee. The latter appeal is designed to protect the claim of the United States to a remedy over against Gibbons Brothers, Inc., should William Gibbons succeed in his appeal and thereafter recover against the United States.
The central issue in the trial was the cause of the accident. In helping in cleaning the ship, libellant went by ladder down the escape hatch. He passed from a door in the escape hatch onto one of the decks in the bowels of the ship and thence to the vicinity of hatch No. 2, a well or open space which goes down from the main deck to the bottom of the hold. This hatch was covered on the main deck level so that its interior was dark. Appellant was looking for bags of sawdust to take up to the main deck through the escape hatch, to aid in the cleaning. He had with him an electric light on a long cord which had been plugged in on the main deck. He left the light on a bag of sawdust on the deck where he came from the escape hatch. He got onto a ladder along one side of hatch No. 2 so as to proceed farther down in search of more sawdust. So much seems clear. There likewise is no question that while alone on or about this ladder which ran up and down the "square" or side of the well of hatch No. 2, appellant fell some distance into the bottom of the hold and was seriously injured. He testified in substance that the light began to fail as he was going down, causing him to retrace his steps up the ladder to the vicinity where he had left the light on the deck, that the light failed entirely as he approached this point, and that in attempting to get from the ladder onto this deck his foot slipped on a greasy beading or coaming...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Delta Drilling Co. v. Arnett
......v. ARNETT. ARNETT. v. DELTA DRILLING CO. et al. Nos. 11097, 11098, No. 11099. United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit. December 27, 1950. Writ of Certiorari Denied March 26, ......
-
Frost v. Saluski
...v. American S. S. Co., 6 Cir., 165 F.2d 368, 370; Cappelen v. United States, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 11, 185 F.2d 754, 755; Gibbons v. United States, 1 Cir., 186 F.2d 488, 489; Borcich v. Ancich, 9 Cir., 191 F.2d 392, There was substantial evidence to support the finding of the trial court that the......
-
Koehler v. United States
...145, 146; Cappelen v. United States, D.C.Cir., 185 F.2d 754, 755; The Josephine and Mary, 1 Cir., 120 F.2d 459, 463; Gibbons v. United States, 1 Cir., 186 F.2d 488, 489. Such findings of the trial court as may be found in its opinion herein are clearly sustained by the evidence. Respondent ......
-
Boston Ins. Co. v. Dehydrating Process Co.
...findings are `clearly erroneous', to borrow the expression in Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure". Gibbons v. United States, 1 Cir., 1950, 186 F.2d 488, 489. Thus, not-withstanding the repeated statements that an appeal in admiralty is a trial de novo, we are guided in admir......