Kangadis v. United States
| Decision Date | 20 May 1954 |
| Parties | KANGADIS v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
William L. Standard, New York City, for libelant, by Herman B. Gerringer, New York City, of counsel.
J. Edward Lumbard, U. S. Atty., New York City, for respondent, by Gray & Wythe, New York City, of counsel.
This is an action under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 741 et seq., against The United States, owner of the S. S. Frederick W. Wood, on which Kangadis was employed as an able-bodied seaman. He seeks damages for an alleged injury, and maintenance and cure.
On September 21, 1945, Kangadis signed on the Frederick W. Wood, a Liberty ship of about 10,000 tons and 450 feet long, for a voyage to the Far East. While at sea, on October 26, 1945, Kangadis was ordered to slosh the stays of the aftermast. The mast had four stays, or steel cables, two on the port and two on the starboard side, running from below the crosstrees downward and outward to the deck. It was customary to slosh them every four or five months with a mixture of tallow and white lead to prevent rust. This was done by a seaman, in a bosun chair hooked up to a block rigged to the mast and shackled to the stay, being lowered as the work progressed from the top along the stay and applying the mixture by hand.
At noon, the boatswain had the chair rigged and hoisted aloft. He ordered Kangadis to climb the mast to a platform some twelve feet below the crosstrees which were forty feet above the deck. The platform was a small rectangle, about fifteen inches by twelve and one-half inches, which supported cargo lights on its underside, and there was one on each side of the mast. Kangadis was ordered by the boatswain to swing himself from the platform into the chair, which was three feet out from the platform and one foot below it. The boatswain demonstrated how it was done, which he did by leaning out and grasping the stay and then swinging his legs into the chair. Kangadis, a man then of forty-five years of age, objected, saying that he could not make it as it was too far for him to jump from the platform into the chair.
Kangadis estimated that the chair was thirty inches long by six inches wide. According to the mate, it was eighteen inches long by six to eight inches wide. It had a line from each corner joined at a ring above it forming the bridle which supported the chair.
The ship's log shows that during the previous night the ship was rolling and pitching in a rough northeasterly sea. At 0800 on the morning of October 26th, the wind was Force 4 but at noon it had moderated to Force 3 and the weather was overcast with a moderate northeasterly sea and swell.
Kangadis, as ordered by the boatswain, climbed up to the platform on the mast and swung into the chair and sloshed the two port stays, while an ordinary seaman lowered him down as he worked. The ordinary seaman sloshed the forward starboard stay and Kangadis was then ordered to complete the job by doing the aft starboard stay. He climbed up to the platform, took hold of the stay, and tried to swing into the chair, but one leg missed and he sat straddling the chair. In an effort to get entirely into the chair, he grabbed the stay with his hands and tried to lift his leg into the chair. As he did so, he felt a cracking sensation in his right thumb. It later began to pain and swell, and he subsequently reported to the pharmacist's mate who put it in splints. When the vessel arrived at Okinawa, he was sent to the hospital where X-rays showed a dislocation of the right thumb and a cracked carpal scaphoid bone in the right hand.
Kangadis had been going to sea since 1918. He testified that he had sloshed stays a thousand times and that the usual way to do it was for the seaman to get into the chair on deck and be hoisted aloft by the winch or a man on deck. He said he had never seen it done any other way. Though two of the respondent's expert witnesses testified that it was customary to climb into it aloft, they recognized that a seaman could easily be seated in the bosun chair on deck and be hoisted up....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Di Salvo v. Cunard Steamship Co.
...Erickson, 2 Cir., 1919, 261 F. 986.4 Cf. Cox. v. Esso Shipping Company, 5 Cir., 1957, 247 F.2d 629, 635-636. In Kangadis v. United States, D.C.S.D. N.Y.1954, 121 F.Supp. 842, the libelant-seaman sued the shipowner (the United States) in an action brought under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46......
-
Klimaszewski v. Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Co.
...Carriers, Inc., 2 Cir., 1946, 157 F.2d 817; Reskin v. Minnesota-Atlantic Transit Co., 2 Cir., 1939, 107 F.2d 743; Kangadis v. United States, D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1954, 121 F.Supp. 842. To hold a longshoreman completely barred because he voluntarily obeyed a dangerous order would be inconsistent wit......
-
Carleno v. Marine Transport Lines, Inc.
...the decedent was washed overboard by a tidal wave and no effort was made to abate the speed of the vessel. Finally, in Kangadis v. United States, D.C., 121 F.Supp. 842, an order was deemed improvident where the seaman was directed to perform work by the more dangerous of two methods; the bo......
-
Pedersen v. Diesel Tankers, Ira S. Bushey, Inc.
...and safer ways to do it is negligent, having breached his duty to exercise reasonable care for the seaman's safety. Kangadis v. United States, 121 F.Supp. 842 (SD N.Y.1954), citing Reskin v. Minnesota Atlantic Transit Co., 107 F.2d 743 (2d Cir. 1939). The facts made out by plaintiff establi......