Silverado SS Co. v. Prendergast

• Decision Date: 15 April 1929
• Docket Number: No. 5617.,5617.
• Citation: 31 F.2d 225
• Parties: SILVERADO S. S. CO. v. PRENDERGAST.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

31 F.2d 225 (1929)

SILVERADO S. S. CO. v. PRENDERGAST.

No. 5617.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

March 11, 1929.

Rehearing Denied April 15, 1929.

Frank A. Huffer, William H. Hayden, Fred T. Merritt, Lane Summers, and G. H. Bucey, all of Seattle, Wash., for appellant.

Wm. Martin and J. O. Davies, both of Seattle, Wash., for appellee.

Before GILBERT, RUDKIN, and DIETRICH, Circuit Judges.

DIETRICH, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding damages to appellee for personal injuries suffered by him as the result of his falling into an open hatch on the appellant's steamship Silverado while she was lying at the port of Seattle. The vessel was operated solely as a carrier of cargo and was adapted to no other purpose. The appellee was a resident of Seattle, where he was engaged in the transfer business, and on the evening of January 1, 1925, at the invitation of a man by the name of Ericson, Hengst, the Silverado's master, attended a party given at appellee's home by some of his friends. Upon the close of the party, about 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, at the suggestion of Hengst, appellee, his wife, and a few others went with him to the Silverado with the intention of accompanying him as his guests on a trip to Everett that day. The vessel was then lying alongside the dock with her main deck about a foot above the floor of the dock, and the party went on board at a point abreast of hatch No. 3, which was open but was protected by a coaming about 30 inches high. Lying on the deck along and close to the shoreward coaming was a massive timber about 30 inches square, the upper surface thereof being nearly on a level with the crest of the coaming. For those who desired to use it, there was a ladder extending from the dock to the top of this timber. Stepping directly from the dock to the deck, appellee gave assistance to his wife as she walked along this ladder. Just how he got up on the large timber is not clear, but apparently when he turned or should have turned to the right, he stepped or stumbled from it into the open hatch and fell to the deck below.

At the close of all of the evidence, appellant moved for a directed verdict in its favor, and the denial of this motion is the subject of its principal assignment of error.

The evidence is measurably conflicting, or at least is open to opposing inferences, touching the manner in which appellee and his friends went on board, the directions Hengst gave them, the exact position of the ladder, the condition of the deck, and the question of light. In short, had the issue been one only of the failure of Hengst to exercise an ordinary degree of care, the case may be conceded to have been one for the jury. Under plaintiff's theory of his right to recover, admittedly such a standard would not be sufficient, and it is doubted whether in any view of the evidence it would warrant a finding that Hengst's conduct was so grossly lacking in care for appellee's safety that it could be characterized as willful or wanton. If the deck was well lighted there would be no room for a charge of negligence in any degree, and if it was in total darkness it would seem to have been the height of recklessness for one of appellee's years and experience to take any step upon it without the most minute directions or cautiously "feeling" his way.

But if we assume gross negligence on the part of Hengst, we are still constrained to the view that the denial of defendant's motion was error. Generally a principal is liable for his agent's torts only if they are committed while the agent is carrying on his principal's business. If the agent steps aside from that business to promote purposes of his own having no connection with his employer's business, the relation of agency is for the time being and to that extent suspended. And usually it is not within the implied authority of an agent to invite his personal friends to visit, enter upon, or make use of his principal's property; nor is a principal ordinarily liable for injuries suffered by third persons through the negligence of a servant who for purposes of his own has without authority invited or permitted them to come upon the principal's premises. Touching the reason underlying and the extent of the rule under which the master is made responsible for the negligence of his servant, the Supreme Court has said: "But whether the reasons of the rule be grounded in considerations of policy or rested upon historical tradition, there is a clear limitation to its extent. Guy v. Donald, 203 U. S. 399, 406 27 S. Ct. 63, 51 L. Ed. 245. The master's responsibility cannot be extended...