Jamison v. Encarnacion

Citation74 L.Ed. 1082,281 U.S. 635,50 S.Ct. 440
Decision Date26 May 1930
Docket NumberNo. 390,390
PartiesJAMISON et al. v. ENCARNACION
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. Theodore H. Lord, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and James B. Henney and Daniel Miner, both of New York City, for petitioners.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 635-637 intentionally omitted] Mr. William S. Butler, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for respondent.

Mr. Justice BUTLER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an action brought in the Supreme Court of New York by respondent, a longshoreman, against William A. Jamison, an employing stevedore, to recover damages for personal injuries. Plaintiff was employed by defendant as a member of a crew loading a barge lying at Brooklyn in the navigable waters of the United States. One Curren was the forman in charge of the crew. While plaintiff was upon the barge engaged with others in loading it, the foreman struck and seriously injured him.

The evidence showed that the foreman was authorized by the employer to direct the crew and to keep them at work. Plaintiff's evidence was sufficient to warrant a finding that the foreman assaulted him without provocation, and to hurry him about the work. The trial judge instructed the jury that the defendant would not be liable if the foreman assaulted plaintiff by reason of a personal difference but that, if the foreman, in the course of his employment, committed an unprovoked assault upon plaintiff in furtherance of defendant's work, plaintiff might recover. The jury returned a verdict for $2,500 in favor of plaintiff, and the court gave him judgment for that amount.

The case was taken to the Appellate Division and there plaintiff invoked in support of the judgment section 33 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, 46 U. S. C., § 688 (46 USCA § 688), and the Federal Employers' Liability Act of April 22, 1908, 45 U. S. C., §§ 51-59 (45 USCA §§ 51-59). The court, 224 App. Div. 260, 230 N. Y. S. 16, held that plaintiff's injury was not the result of any negligence within the meaning of the latter act, and reversed the judgment.

The Court of Appeals, 251 N. Y. 218, page 223, 167 N. E. 422, 423, held that the Federal Employers' Liability Act applies and, after quoting the language of this court in International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty, 272 U. S. 50, 52, 47 S. Ct. 19, 71 L. Ed. 157, said: 'As the word 'seamen' in the act

(§ 33, Merchant Marine Act) includes 'stevedores,' so the word 'negligence'

(§ 1, Federal Employers' Liability Act) should * * * include 'misconduct." It reversed the judgment of the Appellate Division and affirmed that of the Supreme Court.

Section 33 of the Merchant Marine Act (46 USCA § 688) provides:

'That any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply. * * *'

Section 1 of the Federal Employers' Liability Act (45 USCA § 51) provides:

'That every common carrier by railroad while engaging in (interstate) commerce * * * shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce * * * for such injury * * * resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier. * * *'

Plaintiff was a seaman within the meaning of section 33 (International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty, supra) and, as he sustained the injuries complained of while loading a vessel in navigable waters, the case is governed by the maritime law as modified by the acts of Congress above referred to. Northern Coal Co. v. Strand, 278 U. S. 142, 49 S. Ct. 88, 73 L. Ed. 232; Panama R. R. Co. v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 375, 44 S. Ct. 391, 68 L. Ed. 748. He is entitled to recover if, within the meaning of section 1, his injuries resulted from the negligence of the foreman.

The question is whether 'negligence' as there used includes the assault in question. The measure was adopted for the relief of a large class of persons employed in hazardous work in the service described. It abrogates the common-law rule that makes every employee bear the risk of injury or death through the fault or negligence of fellow servants, and applies the principle of respondeat superior (section 1), eliminates the defense of contributory negligence and substitutes of contributory negligence and substitutes a rule of comparative negligence (section 3 (45 USCA § 53)), abolishes the defense of assumption of risk, where the violation of a statute enacted for the safety of employees is a contributing cause (section 4 (45 USCA § 54)), and denounces all contracts, rules, and regulations calculated to exempt the employer from liability created by the act (section 5 (45 USCA § 55)).

The reports of the House and Senate committees having the bill in charge condemn the fellow-servant rule as operating unjustly when applied to modern conditions in actions against carriers to recover damages for injury or death of their employees, and show that a complete abrogation of that rule was intended.1 The act, like an earlier similar one that was held invalid because it included subjects beyond the reach of Congress,2 is intended to stimulate carriers to greater diligence for the safety of their employees and of the persons and property of their patrons. Second Employers' Liability Case, 223 U. S. 1, 51, 32 S. Ct. 169, 56 L. Ed. 327, 38 L. R. A. (N. S.) 44; Minneapolis, etc., R. Co. v. Rock, 279 U. S. 410, 413, 49 S. Ct. 363, 73 L. Ed. 766.

The rule that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed does not require such an adherence to the letter as would defeat an obvious legislative purpose or lessen the scope plainly intended to be given to the measure. Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 196 U. S. 1, 17, 18, 25 S. Ct. 158, 49 L. Ed. 363; Gooch v. Oregon short Line R. R. Co., 258 U. S. 22, 24, 42 S. Ct. 192, 66 L. Ed. 443; Barrett v. Van Pelt, 268 U. S. 85, 90, 45 S. Ct. 437, 69 L. Ed. 857; Johnson v. United States (C. C. A.) 163 F. 30; 32, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1194. Cf. Hackfeld & Co. v. United States, 197 U. S. 442, 449 et seq., 32, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1194. Cf. Hackfeld & be narrowed by refined reasoning or for the sake of giving 'negligence' a technically restricted meaning. It is to be construed liberally to fulfill the purposes for which...

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  • Urie v. Thompson
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • May 31, 1949
    ...reasoning * * *. It is to be construed liberally to fulfill the purposes for which it was enacted * * *.' Jamison v. Encarnacion, 281 U.S. 635, 640, 50 S.Ct. 440, 442, 74 L.Ed. 1082. Similarly, the Boiler Inspection Act, 'like the Safety Appliance Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq., is to be libe......
  • The Arizona v. Anelich
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • April 27, 1936
    ...to attain that end, see Cortes v. Baltimore Insular Line, 287 U.S. 367, 375, 53 S.Ct. 173, 77 L.Ed. 368; Jamison v. Encarnacion, 281 U.S. 635, 639, 50 S.Ct. 440, 74 L.Ed. 1082; Alpha S.S. Corp. v. Cain, 281 U.S. 642, 50 S.Ct. 443, 74 L.Ed. 1086; Warner v. Goltra, 293 U.S. 155, 157, 160, 55 ......
  • Seas Shipping Co v. Sieracki
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • April 22, 1946
    ...Court some three years after the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act was adopted, with a like result in Jamison v. Encarnacion, 281 U.S. 635, 50 S.Ct. 440, 74 L.Ed. 1082,19 the compelling answer is that Congress by that Act not only did not purport to make the stevedore's remedy for comp......
  • Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Buell
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • March 24, 1987
    ...has been construed to cover some intentional torts even though its text only mentions negligence. See Jamison v. Encarnacion, 281 U.S. 635, 641, 50 S.Ct. 440, 442, 74 L.Ed. 1082 (1930); Lancaster v. Norfolk & Western R. Co., 773 F.2d 807, 812-813 (CA7 1985), cert. pending, No. 85-1702; Slau......
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1 books & journal articles
  • Coming to terms with strict and liberal construction.
    • United States
    • Albany Law Review Vol. 64 No. 1, September 2000
    • September 22, 2000
    ...defeat an obvious legislative purpose or lessen the scope plainly intended to be given to the measure.'") (citing Jamison v. Encarnacion, 281 U.S. 635, 640 (1930)); Consumers Import Co. v. Kabushibi Kaisha Kawasaki Zosenjo, 320 U.S. 249, 254 (1943) (rejecting the contention that strict cons......

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