Northern Coal Dock Co v. Strand, No. 41

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: McREYNOLDS
• Citation: 73 L.Ed. 232,278 U.S. 142,49 S.Ct. 88
• Parties: NORTHERN COAL & DOCK CO. et al. v. STRAND et al
• Decision Date: 10 December 1928
• Docket Number: No. 41

278 U.S. 142 49 S.Ct. 88 73 L.Ed. 232 NORTHERN COAL & DOCK CO. et al.

v.

STRAND et al.

No. 41. Argued Oct. 23, 1928. Decided Dec. 10, 1928.

Page 143

Mr. Charles Quarles, of Milwaukee, Wis., for petitioners.

Messrs. Mortimer Levitan, of Madison, Wis., John A. Cadigan, of Superior, Wis., and John W. Reynolds, of Green Bay, Wis., for respondents.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, the Northern Coal & Dock Company, an Ohio corporation, whose business is mining, hauling, and selling coal, maintained a dock on Superior Bay, Wisconsin, where it received and unloaded coal brought by vessels from other Lake ports. It employed regularly some 18 men, who worked upon the dock or went upon vessels made fast thereto and unloaded them, as directed. Charles Strand was one of those so employed. October 10, 1924, while on the steamer Matthew Andrews assisting, as his duties required, in the discharge of her cargo, he was struck by the clamshell and instantly killed.

Respondent Emma Strand, the widow, asked the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin for an award of death benefits against the petitioners-employer and insurance car-

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rier. It found that both Strand and his employer were subject to the state Compensation Act (St. Wis. 1925, § 102.01 et seq.) and awarded benefits. To review this ruling petitioners brought an action in the Dane county circuit court. That court sustained the award and the state Supreme Court approved its action. (193 Wis. 515, 213 N. W. 658, 215 N. W. 448.)

Strand's employment contemplated that he should labor both upon the land and the water. When killed, he was doing longshore or stevedore work on a vessel lying in navigable waters, according to his undertaking. His employment, so far as it pertained to such work, was maritime; the tort was maritime; and the rights of the parties must be ascertained upon a consideration of the maritime law. Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, 217, 37 S. Ct. 524 (61 L. Ed. 1086, L. R. A. 1918C, 451, Ann. Cas. 1917E, 900); State of Washington v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 264 U. S. 219, 44 S. Ct. 302, 68 L. Ed. 646. Originally, that law afforded no remedy for damages arising from death; but we have held that it might be supplemented by state death statutes, which prescrible remedies capable of enforcement in court. Western Fuel Co. v. Garcia, 257 U. S. 233, 242, 42 S. Ct. 89 (66 L. Ed. 210). We have also held that state statutes providing compensation for employees through commission might be treated as amending or modifying the maritime law in cases where they concern purely local matters and occasion no interference with the uniformity of such law in its international and interstate relations. Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, 257 U. S. 469, 42 S. Ct. 157, 66 L. Ed. 321, 25 A. L. R. 1008; Millers' Underwriters v. Braud, 270 U. S. 59, 64, 46 S. Ct. 194 (70 L. Ed. 470); Smith & Son v. Taylor, 276 U. S. 179, 48 S. Ct. 228, 72 L. Ed. 520.

The unloading of a ship is not matter of purely local concern. It has direct relation to commerce and navigation, and uniform rules in respect thereto are essential. The fact that Strand worked for the major portion of the time upon land is unimprotant. He was upon the water in pursuit of his maritime duties when the accident occurred.

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Chapter 331, Wisconsin Stats. 1923 (section 331.03, 1925 Stats.), provides for recovery of damages arising from death caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default. The same statutes (sections 102.01, 102.02, 102.03, 102.04, and 102.05, et seq.) deprive the employer in personal injury cases of any defense based upon assumption of risk, negligence of fellow servants, or contributory negligence (not willful), unless he has elected to pay compensation in the manner specified, and direct that no contract, rule, or regulation shall relieve him from this restriction; also that, where both employer and employee are subject to the provisions of the act, the liability for compensation therein provided shall be in lieu of all other. One who employers three or more workers is declared to have elected to be subject to the act unless he has indicated the contrary; and, generally, where he has not given notice to the contrary, an employee is subject to the act whenever the employer is.

There is nothing in the record to indicate that, when contracting with its stevedores, the Dock Company actually agreed to subject itself to the liabilities imposed by the state Compensation Act. And it is enough here to say that the state had no power to impose upon an employer liabilities of that kind in respect of men engaged to perform the work of stevedores on shipboard.

The Act of March 30, 1920, 41 Stat. 537 (46 USCA §§ 761-768), which provides that...