The Iroquois
| Decision Date | 02 May 1904 |
| Docket Number | No. 200,200 |
| Citation | 24 S.Ct. 640,194 U.S. 240,48 L.Ed. 955 |
| Parties | THE IROQUOIS |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This was a libel filed in the district court for the northern district of California by Matthew Bridges against the ship Iroquois, to recover damages for a failure of the master to provide suitable surgical treatment and care for the libellant, who had suffered injury by a fall from the main yard to the deck of the vessel.
The facts of the case were substantially as follows: The Iroquois left New York on December 27, 1899, bound for the port of San Francisco, with a full cargo of general merchandise. On February 23, 1900, while the vessel was rounding Cape Horn during heavy weather, and while libellant was aloft, in the performance of his duty, he accidentally fell from the main yard to the deck of the vessel, thereby fracturing two ribs and his right leg in two places. The master, with the aid of the carpenter, set the leg in splints, kept the libellant in his berth, gave him such food and delicacies as the supplies of the ship permitted, and on March 30, after five weeks, removed the splints, and found the leg apparently in good condition. Before arriving at San Francisco, and early in April, he was able to leave his berth, go upon deck and walk about with the aid of a crutch. But after arriving at that port on May 7, 1900, he was sent to the hospital, where it was found that, while his ribs had healed perfectly, the bones of his leg had not united, and he was subsequently, and in October, compelled to suffer amputation, and, of course, became a cripple for the remainder of his life. The master was charged with a breach of duty in failing to put into an intermediate port and procure the proper surgical attendance.
Upon this state of facts the district court entered a decree in favor of the libellant for $3,000 (113 Fed. 964), which was subsequently affirmed by the court of appeals, 55 C. C. A. 497, 118 Fed. 1003.
Mr. Milton Andros for petitioners.
Messrs. A. H. Ricketts, Walter G. Holmes, and D. T. Sullivan, for respondent.
Statement by Mr. Justice Brown:
The duty to provide proper medical treatment and attendance for seamen falling ill or suffering injury the service of the ship has been imposed upon the shipowners by all maritime nations. It appears in the earliest Codes of Continental Europe and was expressly recognized by this court in the recent case of The Osceola, 189 U. S. 158, 47 L. ed. 760, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 483. Upon large passenger steamers a physician or surgeon is always employed, whose duty it is to minister to the passengers and crew in cases of sickness or accident. Of course, this would be impracticable upon an ordinary freighting vessel, where the master is presumed to have some knowledge of the treatment of diseases, and in ordinary cases stands in the place of a physician or surgeon (The Wensleydale, 41 Fed. 602); but for the further protection of seamen, vessels of the class of the Iroquois are compelled by law to be provided with a chest of medicines and with such anti-scorbutics, clothing, and slop-chests as the climate, particular trade, and the length of the voyage may require. U. S. Rev. Stat. §§ 4569, 4572, 4573 (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 3100 3101).
What is the measure of the master's obligation in cases where the seaman is severely injured while the ship is at sea has been made the subject of discussion in several cases; but each depends so largely upon its own peculiar facts that the rule laid down in one may afford little or no aid in determining another, depending upon a different state of facts. The early cases of Harden v. Gordon, 2 Mason, 541, Fed. Cas. No. 6,047 and Reed v. Canfield, Sumn. 195, Fed. Cas. No. 11641, contain an exhaustive discussion of the general subject by Mr. Justice Story. But, as in both cases the disability occurred at or near a port, they are of no special value in this case.
We have carefully examined the cases of Brown v. Overton, 1 Sprague, 462, Fed. Cas. No. 2,024; The Chandos, 6 Sawy. 544, 4 Fed. 647; The Scotland, 42 Fed. 925; Whitney v. Olsen, 47 C. C. A. 331, 108 Fed. 292; The Troop, 118 Fed. 769, and Danvir v. Morse, 139 Mass. 323, 1 N. E. 123, and are of opinion that none of them fit the exigencies of the present case. We cannot say that in every instance where a serious accident occurs the master is bound to disregard every other consideration and put into the nearest port, though if the accident happen within a reasonable distance of such port, his duty to do so would be manifest. Each case must depend upon its own circumstances, having reference to the seriousness of the injury, the care that can be given the sailor on shipboard, the proximity of an intermediate port, the consequences of delay to the interests of the shipowner, the direction of the wind and the probability of its continuing in the same direction, and the fact whether a surgeon is likely to be found with competent skill to take charge of the case. With reference to putting into port, all that can be demanded of the master is the exercise of reasonable judgment and the ordinary acquaintance of a seaman with the geography and resources of the country. He is not absolutely bound to put into such port if the cargo be such as would be seriously injured by the delay. Even the claims of humanity must be weighed in a balance with the loss that would probably occur to the owners of the ship and cargo. A seafaring life is a dangerous one, accidents of this kind are peculiarly liable to occur, and the general principle of law that a person entering a dangerous employment is regarded as assuming the ordinary risks of such employment is peculiarly applicable to the case of seamen.
To judge of the propriety of the master's conduct in a particular case we are bound, so far as possible, to put ourselves in his place, and inquire whether, in view of all the circumstances, he was bound to put into an intermediate port. The charge in the libel is that he should either have put back to Port Stanley in the East Falkland islands, or deviated from his course and made the port of Valparaiso, 'or any one of several other ports in the southern part of South America.' The very indefiniteness of this charge shows that neither libellant nor counsel had in mind any particular port, and it was not until the testimony of a former officer of the Chilian navy was taken at San Francisco, that they were able to fix upon the port of San Carlos or the Evangelist islands as proper places at which to make call. In view of this inability to select a proper port until the officer whose business it had been to cruise up and down the Chilian coast had informed them, it may certainly be contended with great show of reason that the master was not bound to...
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