Mahnich v. Southern Co

• Citation: 1944 A.M.C. 1,64 S.Ct. 455,88 L.Ed. 561,321 U.S. 96
• Decision Date: 31 January 1944
• Docket Number: No. 200,200
• Parties: MAHNICH v. SOUTHERN S.S. CO
• Court: United States Supreme Court

321 U.S. 96

64 S.Ct. 455

88 L.Ed. 561

MAHNICH

v SOUTHERN S.S. CO.

No. 200.

Argued Jan. 5, 1944.

Decided Jan. 31, 1944.

Mr. Abraham E. Freedman, of Philadelphia, Pa., for petitioners.

Mr. Joseph W. Henderson, of Philadelphia, Pa., for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, a seaman on respondent's vessel, the 'Wichita Falls', was injured, while at sea, by a fall from a staging, which gave way when a piece of defective rope supporting it parted. The rope was supplied by the mate when there was ample sound rope available for use in rigging the staging. The question is whether the defect in the staging was a breach of the warranty of seaworthiness rendering the owner liable to indemnify the seaman for his injury.

Petitioner brought this suit in personam in admiralty in the District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, to recover indemnity and maintenance and cure. On the trial the evidence showed that the mate ordered petitioner to paint the bridge and to stand on the staging for that purpose. The staging consisted of a board supported at both ends by rope which, if sound, was sufficient in strength to sustain the stage and its load. The boatswain, by direction of the mate, had cut the rope for the staging from a coil, which had been stored for two years in the Lyle gun box. The rope, intended for use with the Lyle life-saving apparatus, had never been used. There was testimony that it had been examined and tested by the boatswain and the mate and that it was generally sound in appearance. After the accident, examination of the rope at the point where it broke showed that it was so rotten as to be inadequate to support the strain imposed upon it.

The trial judge concluded from the evidence that there was sound rope on board available for rigging the staging. He found that there was no fault in the manner in which the stage had been rigged, but that the rope selected by the mate was defective and that petitioner's injury was attributable to the negligence of the boatswain and the mate in failing to observe the defect.¹ He held that the proceeding was brought too late to recover for the negligence under the Jones Act, and that the 'Wichita Falls' was not unseaworthy by reason of the defective rope used in rigging the staging, citing Plamals v. The Pinar Del Rio, 277 U.S. 151, 155, 48 S.Ct. 457, 458, 72 L.Ed. 827. He accordingly denied indemnity to petitioner, but gave judgment in his favor for maintenance and cure.

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed, 129 F.2d 857, 135 F.2d 602, by a divided court, resting its decision on the statement quoted from the opinion in The Pinar Del Rio, supra, 277 U.S. at page 155, 48 S.Ct. at page 458, 72 L.Ed. 827, that 'The record does not support the suggestion that the Pinar Del Rio was unseaworthy. The mate selected a bad rope when good ones were available.' We granted certiorari, 320 U.S. 725, 64 S.Ct. 56, upon a petition which urged that the statement quoted from The Pinar Del Rio, supra, does not rule this case, and that the decision below is inconsistent with the decisions in The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158, 23 S.Ct. 483, 47 L.Ed. 760, and in Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith, 305 U.S. 424, 59 S.Ct. 262, 83 L.Ed. 265.

The sole issue presented by the petition for certiorari is that of respondent's liability to indemnify petitioner for the injury suffered by reason of the defective staging. No question is raised with respect to petitioner's right to recover under the Jones Act or his right to the award of maintenance and cure or its adequacy.

A finding of seaworthiness is usually a finding of fact. Luckenbach v. W. J. McCahan Sugar Refining Co., 248 U.S. 139, 145, 39 S.Ct. 53, 54, 63 L.Ed. 170, 1 A.L.R. 1522; Steel v. State Line S.S. Co., L.R. 3 A.C. 72, 81, 82, 90, 91. Ordinarily we do not, in admiralty, more than in other cases, review the concurrent findings of fact of two courts below. The Camb Prince, 170 U.S. 655, 658, 18 S.Ct. 753, 754, 755, 42 L.Ed. 1181; The Wildcroft, 201 U.S. 378, 387, 26 S.Ct. 467, 468, 50 L.Ed. 794; Luckenbach v. W. J. McCahan Sugar Refining Co., supra; Piedmont & George's Creek Coal Co. v. Seaboard Fisheries Co., 254 U.S. 1, 13, 41 S.Ct. 1, 5, 65 L.Ed. 97; Just v. Chambers, 312 U.S. 383, 385, 668, 61 S.Ct. 687, 690, 85 L.Ed. 903. Here, however, both courts below, holding themselves bound by The Pinar Del Rio, supra, have, on the facts found, held as a matter of law that the staging was seaworthy despite its defect. That conclusion of law is reviewable here.

Until the enactment of the Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007, 46 U.S.C. § 688, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, the maritime law afforded no remedy by way of indemnity beyond maintenance and cure, for the injury to a seaman caused by the mere negligence of a ship's officer or member of the crew. But the admiralty rule that the vessel and owner are liable to indemnify a seaman for injury caused by unseaworthiness of the vessel or its appurtenant appliances and equipment, has been the settled law since this Court's ruling to that effect in The Osceola, supra, 189 U.S. at page 175, 23 S.Ct. at page 487, 47 L.Ed. 760. Chelentis v. Luckenbach S.S. Co., 247 U.S. 372, 380, 381, 38 S.Ct. 501, 502, 503, 62 L.Ed. 1171; Carlisle Packing Co. v. Sandanger, 259 U.S. 255, 258, 260, 42 S.Ct. 475, 476, 477, 66 L.Ed. 927; Pacific S.S. Co. v. Peterson, 278 U.S. 130, 134, 49 S.Ct. 75, 76, 73 L.Ed. 220; Cortes v. Baltimore Insular Line, 287 U.S. 367, 370, 371, 53 S.Ct. 173, 174, 77 L.Ed. 368; Warner v. Goltra, 293 U.S. 155, 158, 55 S.Ct. 46, 48, 79 L.Ed. 254; The Arizona v. Anelich, 298 U.S. 110, 120 et seq., 56 S.Ct. 707, 710, 80 L.Ed. 1075; Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith supra, 305 U.S. at pages 428, 429, 59 S.Ct. at page 265, 83 L.Ed. 265; O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 318 U.S. 36, 40, 63 S.Ct. 488, 491. The latter rule seems to have been derived from the seaman's privilege to abandon a ship improperly fitted out, and was generally applied, before its statement in The Osceola, supra, by numerous decisions of the lower federal courts during the last century. See The Arizona v. Anelich, supra, 298 U.S. at page 121, 56 S.Ct. at page 710, 80 L.Ed. 1075, footnote 2.

This was a recognized departure from the rule of the English law, which allowed no recovery other than maintenance and cure for injuries caused by unseaworthiness, Couch v. Steel, 3 El. & Bl. 402, until the enactment of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, 39 & 40 Vict. Chap. 80, § 5, reenacted by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, 57 & 58 Vict., Chap. 60, § 458. By that statute there is annexed to every contract of service between the owner of a ship or the master and any seaman thereof, an obligation that all reasonable means be used to insure the seaworthiness of the ship before and during the voyage. See Hedley v. Pinkney Steamship Co., (1894) A.C. 222.

In a number of cases in the federal courts, decided before The Osceola, supra, the right of the seaman to recover for injuries caused by unseaworthiness seems to have been rested on the negligent failure, usually by the seaman's officers or fellow seamen, to supply seaworthy appliances. The Noddleburn, D.C., 28 F. 855, affirmed 30 F. 142; The Neptuno, D.C., 30 F. 925; The Frank and Willie, D.C., 45 F. 494; The Julia Fowler, D.C., 49 F. 277; Wm. Johnson & Co. v. Johansen, 5 Cir., 86 F. 886; and see The Columbia, D.C., 124 F. 745; The Lyndhurst, D.C., 149 F. 900. But later cases in this and other federal courts have followed the ruling of the Osceola, supra, that the exercise of due diligence does not relieve the owner of his obligation to the seaman to furnish adequate appliances.² Carlisle Packing Co. v. Sandanger, supra, 259 U.S. at pages 259, 260, 42 S.Ct. at pages 476, 477, 66 L.Ed. 927; The Arizona v. Anelich, supra, 298 U.S. at page 120 et seq., 56 S.Ct. at page 710, 80 L.Ed. 1075; Beadle v. Spencer, 298 U.S. 124, 128, 129, 56 S.Ct. 712, 713, 714, 80 L.Ed. 1082; Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith, supra, 305 U.S. at pages 428, 429, 432, 59 S.Ct. at pages 265, 267, 83 L.Ed. 265; The H. A. Scandrett, 2 Cir., 87 F.2d 708, 710, 711; cf. The Edwin I. Morrison, 153 U.S. 199, 210, 14 S.Ct. 823, 825, 38 L.Ed. 688.

If the owner is liable for furnishing an unseaworthy appliance, even when he is not negligent, a fortiori his obligation is unaffected by the fact that the negligence of the officers of the vessel contributed to its unseaworthiness. It is true that before the Jones Act the owner was, in other respects, not responsible for injuries to a seaman caused by the negligence of officers or members of the crew. But this is not sufficient to insulate the owner from liability for their negligent failure to furnish seaworthy appliances, see Judge Addison Brown, in The Frank and Willie, supra, 45 F. at pages 495 497; Carlisle Packing Co. v. Sandanger, supra, 259 U.S. at pages 259—260, 42 S.Ct. at pages 476, 477, 66 L.Ed. 927, more than their negligence relieves him from his liability for maintenance and cure. The Osceola, supra, 189 U.S. at page 175, 23 S.Ct. at page 487, 47 L.Ed. 760; Pacific S.S. Co. v. Peterson, supra, 278 U.S. at page 134, 49 S.Ct. at page 76, 73 L.Ed. 220; Calmar S.S. Corp. v. Taylor, 303 U.S. 525, 527, 58 S.Ct. 651, 652, 653, 82 L.Ed. 993.

It required the Harter Act to relax the exacting obligation to cargo of the owner's warranty of seaworthiness of ship and tackle.³ That relaxation has not been extended, either by statute or by decision, to the like obligation of the owner to the seaman. The defense of the fellow servant rule to suits in admiralty for negligence, a defense precluded by the Jones Act, has never avowedly been deemed applicable to the owner's stricter obligation to the seaman of the warranty of seaworthiness.

The Osceola, supra, in answer to certified questions, laid down as separately numbered and independent propositions the rule of the owner's unqualified obligation to furnish seaworthy appliances, and the rule that...