Jordan v. U.S. Lines, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-1859,83-1859
• Citation: 738 F.2d 48
• Parties: Robert R. JORDAN, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES LINES, INC., Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 48

738 F.2d 48

Robert R. JORDAN, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES LINES, INC., Defendant, Appellee.

No. 83-1859.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1984.

Decided July 5, 1984.

Joseph G. Abromovitz, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff, appellant.

Frank H. Handy, Jr., Boston, Mass., with whom Richard B. Kydd, and Kneeland, Kydd & Handy, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellee.

Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, BREYER, Circuit Judge, and PETTINE, ^* Senior District Judge.

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

Appellant, Robert Jordan, while working on defendant's ship, unbolted and opened a metal plate on the side of a boiler pump. Steam and hot water escaped, scalding him. He sued, charging Jones Act negligence, 46 U.S.C. Sec. 688, and general maritime law "unseaworthiness." The jury found for the defendant on both counts.

Jordan claims here that he would not have been hurt if an automatic valve between the ship's boiler and pump had closed, for then steam could not possibly have entered the pump. For purposes of this appeal he will concede that he did not follow proper operating procedures: (1) he should have manually closed the automatic valve, and (2) he should not have opened the metal plate until liquid in the pump had drained out through the bottom of the pump; then he could have learned (by noticing what came out of the drain) whether the pump contained hot water and steam. But, he says that failure of the automatic valve to close made the ship "unseaworthy." He points out that a plaintiff injured by "unseaworthiness" is not barred from recovery by his own negligence, even if that negligence might reduce the recovery in the proportion that it contributed to the injury. Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d 196, 200 n. 1 (1st Cir.1980); 1B Benedict on Admiralty Sec. 25 (7th ed. 1983); see Valm v. Hercules Fish Products, Inc., 701 F.2d 235, 236 (1st Cir.1983). And, he argues that the district court should have granted him a directed verdict, or judgment n.o.v., or at least a new trial, on the issue of "unseaworthiness."

To establish his right to a directed verdict, Jordan (the plaintiff), must meet the "strict" standard of showing, through "testimony that the jury is not at liberty to disbelieve" that there is "but one reasonable conclusion." Service Auto Supply Co. of Puerto Rico v. Harte & Co., Inc., 533 F.2d 23, 25 (1st Cir.1976); see Gonzalez v. La Concorde Compagnie D'assurances, 601 F.2d 606, 608 (1st Cir.1979). He is entitled to a judgment n.o.v. only if, viewing "evidence and reasonable inferences" in a light most favorable to defendant, they nonetheless "could lead reasonable men to but one conclusion"--in his favor. Curreri v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers, Local 251, 722 F.2d 6, 8 (1st Cir.1983) (quoting de Mars v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 610 F.2d 55, 57 (1st Cir.1979)). And, to convince us to overturn a trial court's decision not to grant a new trial, Jordan must show that the verdict was "so clearly against the weight of the evidence as to constitute a manifest miscarriage of justice." Lakin v. Daniel Marr & Son Co., 732 F.2d 233, 237 (1st Cir.1984) (quoting Valm v. Hercules Fish Products, Inc., 701 F.2d at 237); see Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d at 200. After carefully reading the record, and in light of these standards, we find the case a close one. Nonetheless, we conclude that Jordan is not entitled to a reversal.

The basic "unseaworthiness" question is whether the "vessel and appurtenances [were] reasonably fit for their intended use." Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d at 199 (quoting Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc., 362 U.S. 539, 550, 80 S.Ct. 926, 933, 4 L.Ed.2d 941 (1960)). We conclude that there is much in the record to support Jordan's claim that they were not fit. Jordan's pump--one of several--apparently had five lines connecting it to the boiler. Four of them had manual "turn off" valves. (They could only be turned off by hand.) The fifth had an "automatic spring loaded valve" which was supposed to close automatically when the pump was not working. This valve could also be turned off manually.

The evidence that this "automatic" valve did not close completely is overwhelming. The pump had not been used for thirty days. Thus, had all five lines been turned off, the pump would have contained only cold water (from condensation). Jordan testified without contradiction, that just before he started working, he made certain the four manual valves in the other pipes were closed. Other testimony (also uncontradicted) showed that after the accident, someone closed the automatic valve by hand and the steam stopped flowing.

Nonetheless, in the circumstances of this case, the fact that the automatic valve did not close completely does not necessarily show "unseaworthiness." Defendant presented considerable evidence suggesting that lines with imperfect automatic valves are nonetheless reasonably fit for their intended use. Several witnesses testified that "automatic spring loaded valves" often remain partially open. A deposit of soft material builds up on the closing disk, preventing a tight fit. Turning the valve by hand will likely close it completely. For this reason, the witnesses said, a workman is supposed to close the valve manually before working on the pump. And, the workman is supposed to drain the pump before starting work so that he can see whether or not steam has nonetheless leaked into the pump through the "automatic" valve.

From this evidence a juror might have concluded that the manual valves and pump drain were designed with safety in mind, while the function of the automatic valve was not to protect workmen but to keep most of the steam in the boiler. One of the witnesses testified that the automatic valve had the function of "maintaining the back pressure at a proper level" which "is not a safety function." A juror might have concluded that the automatic valve need not always have closed perfectly to serve this function. Alternatively, a juror might have thought that, with these manual safety features, the fact that the automatic valve sometimes leaks no more makes the ship "unseaworthy" than does, say, the...