Hara v. Luckenbach Co, 224

• Citation: 269 U.S. 364,46 S.Ct. 157,70 L.Ed. 313
• Decision Date: 04 January 1926
• Docket Number: No. 224,224
• Parties: O'HARA et al. v. LUCKENBACH S. S. CO
• Court: United States Supreme Court

269 U.S. 364

46 S.Ct. 157

70 L.Ed. 313

O'HARA et al.

v LUCKENBACH S. S. CO.

No. 224.

Argued Nov. 19, 1925.

Decided Jan. 4, 1926.

Mr. H. W. Hutton, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioners.

Mr. Peter S. Carter, of New York City, for respondent.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioners, libelants below, quit the service of the steamship company and sought to recover their earned wages on the ground of a violation of section 2 of the Seamen's Act of March 4, 1915, c. 153, 38 Stat. 1164 (Comp. St. § 8363b) copied in the margin.¹ Omitting the various provisions with which we are not here concered, the pertinent requirement of that section is that:

'The sailors shall, while at sea, be divided into at least two, and the firemen, oilers, and water tenders into at least three watches, which shall be kept on duty successively for the performance of ordinary work incident to the sailing and management of the vessel.'

For a failure on the part of the master to comply with this, among other provisions of the section, the seamen are entitled to a discharge and to receive the wages earned. The failure complained of was that the sailors were not divided into watches of equal or approximately equal numbers, as, it was insisted, the statute contemplated.

The company was the owner the steamship Lewis Luckenbach, a vessel of 14,400 tons burden, upon which libelants were hired as sailors for a voyage from New York to Pacific ports and return to some port north of Cape Hatteras on the Atlantic. Altogether, there was 13 sailors on board, 3 of whom, including libelants, were assigned as quartermasters. On the voyage and while at sea, these sailors were not equally divided into watches. Three watches were on duty, each consisting of one quartermaster and one able seaman, the remaining seven sailors being kept at day work only. The District Court dismissed the libel and this was affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. 1 F.(2d) 923. Both courts were of opinion that the primary object of the statutory provision was to fix hours of service so as to prevent overwork, not to prescribe the number of seamen on each watch. The District Court thought that this conception of the law was borne out by the consideration that, if one-half or one-third of the crew must be assigned to duty at night, a majority of them would have little or nothing to do. The Circuit Court of Appeals seemed to think that the purpose of Congress to provide for the safety of the ship was satisfied rather in the selection of qualified quartermasters and men for the lookout than in equality of the watches. With these views we are unable to agree.

The general purpose of the Seamen's Act is not only to safeguard the welfare of the seamen as workmen, but, as set forth in the title, also 'to promote safety at sea.' The act as a whole shows very clearly that, while hours of work and proper periods of rest were regarded as considerations of primary concern while the vessel is in a safe harbor, these considerations must yield, as they have always yielded, to the paramount necessity of safety while the ship is at sea; and, as indicating that the provision under review was not intended primarily as a regulation of working hours, it is significant that it does not apply to the entire crew, but requires a division into watches only of the sailors and the firemen, oilers, and water tenders. It is natural to suppose that, if the purpose of Congress was chiefly to regulate hours of work, something would have been said about the service, while at sea, of those employed in the steward's department as well. And not only is the division confined to those of the crew engaged in the mechanics of conducting the ship on her voyage, but the imperative requirement is that the watches into which they are divided 'shall be kept on duty successively'; that is to say, by turns, so that one watch must come on as another goes off. The evident purpose was to compel a division of the men for duty on deck and in the fireroom, and continuity of service, to the end that in those departments the ship should at all times be actively manned with equal efficiency.

It probably is true, as said below, that to construe the statute as compelling numerical equality of the watches will result, so far as the sailors are concerned, in the performance of less work on deck at night. And it may be noted in that connection that, in the hearings before the House committee having charge of the bill, it was objected on behalf of the shipowners, obviously, as the context shows, upon the theory that such equality was in fact contemplated by the provision that, 'on cargo steamers, it would be an injustice to keep a lot of men on watch, all night, and have nothing for them to do.' House Hearings on S. 136, Vol. 104, pt. 2, p. 5, Feb. 24, 1914. But the provision, fundamentally, is a measure of precaution against those perilous and often unexpected emergencies of the sea when only immediate and wakeful readiness for action may avert disaster or determine the issue between life and death; its effect as a regulator of working conditions is a matter of subordinate intent. A consideration of other safety provisions of the act will help to make this clear.

Among them, the act (section 13, p. 1169 (Comp. St. § 8363a)) provides that not less than 75 per centum of the crew in each department shall be able to understand any order given by the officers of such vessel, and that a certain percentage of her deck crew shall be of a rating not less than able seaman-meaning, except on the Great Lakes, a seaman, 19 years of age or upwards, who has had at least 3 years' service on deck at sea or on the Great Lakes. It also contains elaborate provisions (section 14, pp. 1170-1184 (Comp. St. § 8258)) for the equipment of ocean-going vessels with life-saving appliances, and, among other things, requires (page 1180) that:

'At no moment of its voyage may any ocean cargo steam vessel of the United States have on board a total number of persons greater than that for whom accommodation is provided in the lifeboats on board.'

None of these provisions is of much, if any, concern, except as a precaution against the unusual crises of the sea.

As a ship pursues her way in security, perhaps for many years, these requirements for safety appliances and for able seamen may seem...