Singleton v. Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Co., 94-30642

• Decision Date: 03 April 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-30642,94-30642
• Citation: 79 F.3d 26
• Parties: Lionel SINGLETON, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GUANGZHOU OCEAN SHIPPING COMPANY, et al., Defendants. GUANGZHOU OCEAN SHIPPING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant, v. COOPER/T. SMITH STEVEDORING COMPANY, INC., Intervenor-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 26

79 F.3d 26

1996 A.M.C. 1476

Lionel SINGLETON, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GUANGZHOU OCEAN SHIPPING COMPANY, et al., Defendants.

GUANGZHOU OCEAN SHIPPING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant, v. COOPER/T. SMITH STEVEDORING COMPANY, INC., Intervenor-Appellee.

No. 94-30642.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 3, 1996.

Christopher Ogilvie Davis, William J. Riviere, Phelps Dunbar, New Orleans, LA, Luther T. Munford, Phelps Dunbar, Jackson, MS, for Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Co.

Robert Murray Johnston, Adams & Johnston, New Orleans, LA, for plaintiff-appellee.

Alan G. Brackett, Hebert, Mouledoux & Bland, New Orleans, LA, for Cooper/T. Smith.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before KING, DAVIS and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges.

W. EUGENE DAVIS, Circuit Judge:

A shipowner appeals from the district court's imposition of liability for injuries to a longshoreman under 33 U.S.C. § 905(b), based on the Scindia duty to intervene. Finding no basis to impose liability on the shipowner, we reverse and render.

I.

Lionel Singleton, a longshoreman employed by Cooper/T. Smith Stevedoring Company, Inc. ("CTS"), was severely injured while offloading zinc and aluminum ingots from the aft hold (Hold 1) of the M/V MA GUAN HAI. The vessel was owned by Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Company ("GOSCO"), an instrumentality of the government of the People's Republic of China, time chartered to Pacific Basin Shipping and Trading Company, Ltd., and sub-time chartered to Eurosteel Lines, Inc. ("Eurosteel").

The M/V MA GUAN HAI docked in New Orleans on June 1, 1988, carrying primarily a cargo of steel, but also zinc and aluminum ingots. CTS had been retained by Eurosteel to offload the ingots from Hold 1. After inspecting the holds and cargo and finding no deficiencies or dangerous conditions, CTS began unloading on June 2, 1988, using the ship's winch to lift the ingot bundles up through the hatch.

Lionel Singleton was injured on the morning of June 3, 1988. While he was standing on top of a tier of ingots attaching a winch sling to a bundle, the tier under him collapsed. Singleton was thrown to the deck and crushed under the falling bundles.

Singleton sued GOSCO and Eurosteel in state court and the suit was removed to the federal district court. CTS intervened seeking reimbursement pursuant to the LHWCA, 33 U.S.C. § 901, et seq., of all compensation and medical benefits paid to Singleton as a result of this accident. Before the trial, Singleton settled with Eurosteel.

Following a bench trial, the district court found that GOSCO was not liable under the first Scindia duty, the turnover duty. Scindia Steam Navigation Co. v. De Los Santos, 451 U.S. 156, 167, 101 S.Ct. 1614, 1622, 68 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981). Based on expert testimony, the court concluded that the ingots were loaded, stowed, dunnaged and secured within the range of skilled and competent stevedoring practices and that the ingots arrived in New Orleans "securely intact, presenting no latent defect in the stow that a competent stevedore could not identify and cope with."

The court further found that the instability of the ingot tier which caused Singleton's fall was due to the faulty unloading procedure used by CTS. Because the stow was located forward of the hatch, the bundles to be unloaded in the sling were pulled off the tiers by the winch wires at an angle. This dragging of the bundles off the interior, unsupported tiers sent vibrations through the tiers, which destabilized the interior tiers and directly caused the tier collapse which injured Singleton. The court concluded that "CTS imprudently elected to unload with the quicker but riskier crane wire, and with forklifts inadequate to the task" and that this manner of unloading was "haphazard, unsafe, geared to productivity, and set the stage for Singleton's accident."

The district court, however, did find GOSCO liable for breach of the third Scindia duty, the duty to intervene. Id. at 175-76, 101 S.Ct. at 1626. The court found that Yu, the first officer and agent of the ship, knew of the unsafe unloading procedures of CTS and had a duty to intervene to stop a hazardous activity "being promoted by the obviously improvident judgment of the stevedore, as well as by the stevedore's use in a hazardous or 'defective' manner of equipment actually belonging to the vessel: the crane between the No. 1 and 2 holds."

The district court allocated fault 15% to GOSCO, 75% to CTS, and 10% to Singleton. CTS's fault was reallocated to GOSCO under the rationale of Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 99 S.Ct. 2753, 61 L.Ed.2d 521 (1979). This increased GOSCO's share of the damages to 90%. Judgment was entered in favor of Singleton against GOSCO for $1,340,634.52, together with pre-judgment interest at the Louisiana legal rate and post-judgment interest under 28 U.S.C. § 1961.

GOSCO filed a timely appeal and complained primarily of the finding of liability under the third Scindia duty. Singleton cross-appealed and challenged a factual finding by the district court. Our disposition of this appeal makes it unnecessary for us to consider Singleton's cross-appeal.

II.

In Scindia, the Supreme Court held that generally the shipowner may rely on the stevedore to avoid exposing the longshoreman to unreasonable hazards and that the primary responsibility for the safety of the longshoremen rests on the stevedore. Scindia, 451 U.S. at 172, 101 S.Ct. at 1624. The Supreme Court described three limited circumstances in which the shipowner would be liable to the longshoremen. These three Scindia exceptions were summarized by this court in Pimental v. LTD Canadian Pacific Bul, 965 F.2d 13 (5th Cir.1992):

1) if the vessel owner fails to warn on turning over the ship of hidden defects of which he should have known.

2) for injury caused by hazards under the control of the ship.

3) if the vessel owner fails to intervene in the stevedore's operations when he has actual knowledge both of the hazard and that the stevedore, in the...