Morales v. City of Galveston

• Decision Date: 08 April 1960
• Docket Number: No. 18011.,18011.
• Citation: 275 F.2d 191
• Parties: Robert MORALES et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF GALVESTON et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

275 F.2d 191 (1960)

Robert MORALES et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF GALVESTON et al., Appellees.

No. 18011.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

February 22, 1960.

Rehearing Denied April 8, 1960.

Milton Schwartz, Arthur J. Mandell, Houston, Tex., for appellants.

Preston Shirley, Galveston, Tex. (McLeod, Mills, Shirley & Alexander, Galveston, Tex.), for appellee, City of Galveston.

Edward W. Watson, Galveston, Tex. (Lockhart, Watson & Peterson, Galveston, Tex.), for appellee, Cardigan Shipping Co., Ltd.

Before RIVES, Chief Judge, and HUTCHESON and JONES, Circuit Judges.

HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge.

The suit was for damages for personal injuries sustained by eight libellants, as a result of inhaling fumes from dangerous chemicals, while working as longshoremen trimming wheat on board the Steamship Grelmarion, a vessel operated by respondent, Cardigan Shipping Co., Ltd., discharged from grain elevators owned by the City of Galveston.

The claim as to the City of Galveston was: that it was negligent, in using dangerous chemicals harmful to human beings, in fumigating the wheat for the purpose of killing weevils; that it had had earlier experiences in connection with such loading where injuries had occurred; and that it had breached its duty of care to protect libellants from injury from such fumigated grain.

As to the Cardigan Shipping Co., the claim was that the vessel was not seaworthy in that when a quantity of grain containing the fumigant entered the hold, the place became dangerous and unsafe for libellants, and the ship owner then and thereupon breached its nondelegable duty to supply them, and keep them supplied, with a seaworthy place to work; that, in short, the vessel then became unseaworthy, and the ship became liable for the consequences as soon as the grain with the poisonous fumes entered the hatch. It was further contended that Cardigan was negligent in not making tests of the fumigated grain or otherwise discovering the presence of the chemicals therein.

Upon full and lengthy testimony as to what was provided to be, and was, done in and about the port at this time and other times and as to how the injuries occurred, the court made complete and detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law,¹ which absolved both the City and Cardigan of the charge of negligence, and Cardigan of the charge of its breach of duty to furnish a seaworthy vessel. In addition, though the findings and conclusions exonerated both respondents from liability, the court found the amount of damages sustained by each of the libellants as a result of inhaling the fumes created by the last batch of the wheat that came out of the funnels.

In his findings of fact, after fully exploring the evidence, the district judge found that no contaminated grain entered the hatch until the last spout poured it in, and that, under the full disclosures made in the record, neither negligence nor unseaworthiness was shown.

Appealing from the decree, libellants are here: attacking the findings and conclusions, that negligence was not established and unseaworthiness was not shown, as clearly erroneous; and insisting that Findings of Fact Nos. 9, 10, 11 and a portion of 19 are in effect findings of unseaworthiness as matter of law.

On the issue of negligence, the brief of the City of Galveston carefully searches out and draws together the evidence on which the court's finding of failure to prove negligence was based and draws the conclusion therefrom that the findings are not clearly erroneous and, under McAllister v. United States, 348 U.S. 19, 75 S.Ct. 6, 99 L.Ed. 20, cannot, therefore, be set aside. Cardigan's brief, as to the negligence charged against it, in effect does the same thing.

Upon the question of unseaworthiness, with which of course the City's brief does not deal, Cardigan's brief carefully canvasses the evidence and the cases and confidently insists that the appellants are entirely wrong in claiming: that the district judge's findings, on which his conclusions are based, are in effect findings of unseaworthiness; and that, if they are not, they are clearly erroneous and must be set aside.

Careful consideration of, and reflection on, the claims and arguments of the opposing parties, in the light of the record and the controlling authorities, leaves us in no doubt that, as to the charges of negligence, there is no basis whatever for the attack here upon the findings as clearly erroneous. Indeed, we are convinced that, under an impartial and disinterested view of the evidence as a whole, the findings are well supported and wholly reasonable. It seems clear to us, too, that, in pressing for reversal of the findings and conclusions, that no negligence was established, appellants are under the influence of the same error into which they fall when they put forward and argue their claims of unseaworthiness.

This is: that, because there was proof of prior incidents of injury from fumigants, and the court found that the libellants' injuries resulted from their presence, making the place of work temporarily dangerous, the court below was, and this court is, bound to find that defendants were liable as matter of law, that, in short, were insurers of libellants' safety against such injuries and, as such, bound to indemnify them from the damages resulting therefrom.

Of this contention, it is, we think, sufficient to say that it completely disregards: the nature of the duty of due care and of the duty to furnish a seaworthy vessel; the specific findings of the court as to the general and particular precautions taken against such occurrences and results; the precise and particular circumstances surrounding and attending them here; and the function and authority of the trial court to determine, in the first place, whether there was or was not negligence, and of this court to determine, in the second place, whether, within the established rule, a finding is clearly erroneous, that is, is such that the reviewing court, on the entire evidence, is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made.

We turn now to the claims of unseaworthiness, to say that, because of Mr. Tetreault's lawyer-like and truly admirable contribution² to the question of seaworthiness at issue here and the comprehensive and thoroughgoing treatment of it by Gilmore & Black, "The Law of Admiralty", Chapt. VI, it will not be necessary for us to attempt a survey of the many cases in this field or to trace the changes which, since Justice Brown's statement in The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158, 23 S.Ct. 483, 47 L.Ed. 760, of the four propositions, have been taking place in the law.

It will be sufficient for our purpose to state, and support the statement by cases so holding, that, while it has been correctly said that liability for unseaworthiness is a species of liability without fault, the bare statement of the rule in this form, without adding after fault, in the sense of negligence, is apt to, as it has here, sometimes mislead some of the proponents of this view into believing, or at least claiming in effect, that, because of the absolute and nondelegable duty of seaworthiness, the liability of a ship to indemnify a seaman for an injury caused by the unseaworthiness of the vessel is that of an insurer to make and keep the ship safe for the seamen under any and all circumstances.

We think it cannot be doubted that this is an incorrect view and that what and all that is meant by the statement is that...