New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-23
United states District Court.


l.. Jones VS.. the Tidal Wave.
Z. Wagner, ct al, VS.. steamer Ozark
Frank Meyers VS.. steamer Lizzie Hopkins
In the cases mentioned here Judge Durel
rendered a decision as follows:
The libelants, who were employed in dit
ferent capacities on the several steamboat
set forth in the caption to this opinion, have
brought their several suits for the recovery
of wages, of damages in the shape of add
tioHal wages, of expenses for medical at
tendance, of expenses for nurses, and o
expenses for board accruing and incurred
during a sickness consequent upon persona
injuries received while in the service of
and actual employment upon. said boats.
The solution of the questions presented
in these suits involves principles both new
and difficult of application, taken in connec
tion with the locality of the happening o.
the injuries suffered. The hbelants, at the
time of the happening of the injuries SCI
forth in their libels, were engaged i'll the
navigation of the internal waters of the
United States; but since our courts of ad
miralty have adopted the definition given
in the act of 1889, in displacement of the
narrow rules of the English law as a meas
ure of their territorial jurisdiction, it should
be the aim, and indeed, it is the duty of our
judges in admiralty to class the rights and
liabilities of those who navigate the rivers
and lakes of the United States with the
rights and liabilities of those who navigate
the high seas, and in as far as it is possible
to do so, to equalize the same.
In the case of Reed ct al VS.. Garfield, first
Sumner, Mr.. Justice Story, touching upon
the question of the rights of sailors who
receive injuries while in the employment of
ship to have allowed them wages while
sick, together with expenses of attendance,
medical services, ETC., says:
l am clearly of opinion that a seaman
who Is taken sick, and is injured or disabled
in the service of the ship without any fault
on his own part, is by the maritime law
entitled to be healed at the expense of the
ship. do not 90 over the authorities on
this subject. They will be found in some
measure collected in the opinion delivered
in Harden VS.. Gordon, second Mason, 54l, to
which | deliberately adhere.
H. has been asked, if, in claim of this
sort, the expenses Of cure are to be paid by
the ship, what are the limits of the allow
ance! May they be extended over years or
for life Are they to be like the pensions
allowed by some of the marine ordinances
in cases of wounds and other injuries re-
ceived by seamen in defending the ship
from the attacks of pirates Ny answer to
suggestions of this sort is that the law EN-
bodies in its very formula the limits of the
liability The seaman is to be cured at the
expense of the ship of the sickness or injury
sustained in the ships service. 1t must be
sustained by the party while in the ships
service, and he is not to receive any com
pensation or allowance for the effects of
the injury. But so far, and so far only, as
expenses are incurred in the cure, whether
they are of a medical or other nature-for
diet, lodging, nursing, or other assistance
they are charge on and to be borne by the
ship.
The sickness or other injury may occasion
a temporary or permanent disability; but
that is not ground for indemnity from the
owners They are liable only for expenses
necessarily incurred for the cure, and when
the cure is completed, at least 50 far as the
ordinary medical means extend the owners
are freed from all further liability. They
are not in any just sense liable for conse-
quential damages. The question, then, in
all such cases Is, what expenses have been
virtually incurred for the cure, not what
might under other circumstances be in
CURED. Tie owner is not to respond for
charity actually administered by others, but
for expenses. He is not to pay what NAV
remunerate the sufferer for his losses. or
what in compassion or humanity he might
demand but what the law has measured
out as the limit of justice.
The late Judge Belts, in very elaborate
opinion given in the case of hewitt VS..
Clarke (Olcotts Reports), speaking to the
same question, says:
The libelant insists that both public |
policy and the plain text of the laws Of the
sea give him fixed right to be treated and
maintained at the charge of the respondents
while his disability remains. A like posi-
ton was taken in the first circuit in the case
of Reed VS.. Garfield.
Judge Story felt the force of the inter
which naturally arises under this
rule. is the obligation imposed positive
one to cure the seaman! And does 1t stand |
in force so long as the illness or the wound |
incurred on shipboard is unhealed? And in |
my humble judgment, his decision in the |
cause fails to supply a clear and satistac-
tory explanation of the difficulty.
His answer is that the law embOdies in its |
very formula the limit of the liability The
seaman is TO be cured at the expense of the
ship OF the sickness or injury sustained in
the ships service and when the cure is
completed, at least SO far as ordinary medi-
cal means extend the owners are freed
from all other liability.
ms statement indicates no limitation to
the obligation of the owner. short of a com
Piete cure, unless it may be implied that he
oOes not become responsible for inefficient
enorts 70 cure when ordinary medical means
are used and fail to accomplish it.
buC IL would seem to result from the
terms in which the doctrine is stated, that
the owner remains chargeable with the ex-
penses sustained by a seaman in employing
medical means To effect a cure, SO long as
the necessity for such expenses abides
Certainly, the court in that case points
put no restriction or qualification to such
absolute obligation.
The learned judge, after naming a num-
Der of cases trota the French writers. as
Pothier, Vain, Cleirac, continues: This
,ule does not embody in itself any restric
ion or limitation Of liability short of the
onsummation of a cure, and the case Of
Reed VS. Garfield, in reposing upon the
oy.a,uio Of the law as the measure # the
,wners responsibility, would seem to sane
on and adopt it according to its natural