The Yoxford
| Decision Date | 31 December 1887 |
| Citation | 33 F. 521 |
| Parties | THE YOXFORD. [1] v. THE YOXFORD. QUINN |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
John J Allen, for libelant.
E. B Convers, for claimant.
This is an action brought to recover for personal injuries caused by the libelant's fall into the hold of the steamer Yoxford. At the time of the accident the steamer was taking in grain from an elevator. It being necessary to shift the elevator spout into hatch No. 2, the libelant was directed to assist in the operation. At the time, several hatch-covers were on hatch No. 2, which it was necessary to remove. These covers the libelant and another man, Powell, undertook to remove. While so engaged, the libelant fell into the hold, one of the hatch-covers falling with him. The libelant's account of the accident is that he stepped upon the covered portion of the hatch, and, in obedience to a direction from the man with him to come to him, he turned about, when the cover on which he stepped gave way under him, and he was precipitated into the hold below. He charges the accident to an unsafe condition of the hatch. A very different account is given by the master of the steamship. The master swears that he, at the time the libelant fell, was close to the hatch and saw the fall; that the libelant undertook to raise one of the hatch-covers without assistance, and for this purpose stood upon one of the fore-and-afters,-- a narrow beam of wood on which, when in place, the hatch-covers rest at one end,-- and, while standing on this narrow and dangerous place stooped down, lifted one of the covers by a ring, and pulled one end of it from the coaming; that the cover was too heavy for him, and by its weight he was pulled off the fore-and-after on which he stood, and so fell from the beam to the hold below. According to the master, the sole cause of the accident was the excessive carelessness of the man in lifting the cover by its ring while he was standing on the narrow fore-and-aft beam over the open hatch.
If the master's account be true, the libelant cannot recover. If, on the other hand, the master's account be untrue the fact of an untrue account, willfully made-- as this one must be, if untrue-- by the master of the ship, goes far to confirm the evidence presented by the libelant to show that the hatch was unsafe by reason of a worn and warped condition of the hatch-cover, and a loose condition of the fore-and-after. The important question of veracity thus raised has received my careful attention, and my conclusion is adverse to the claimant.
In the first place, I am unable to see how, if the libelant was standing as the master says he was, it was possible for him to lift...
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