Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/137/1/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 09:00:50+00:00

Document:
Where a person is injured on a vessel through a marine tort arising partly from the negligence of the officers of the vessel and partly from his own negligence, and sues the vessel in admiralty for damages for his injuries, he is not debarred from all recovery because of the fact that his own negligence contributed to his injuries.
Whether in such case the decree should be for exactly one-half of the damages sustained, or might, in the discretion of the court, be for a greater or less proportion of such damages, quaere.
of those in charge of her in having removed from the bridge the ladder usually leading therefrom to the deck, and in leaving open and failing to guard the aperture thus left in the rail on the bridge; that the libellant was not guilty of negligence, and that he was injured by the fall, and incapacitated from labor. He claimed $3,000 damages.
The answer alleges negligence on the part of the libellant, and an absence of negligence on the part of the claimant.
The district court, held by Judge Brown, entered a decree in favor of the libellant for $150 damages, and $32.33 as one-half of the libellant's costs, less $47.06 as one-half of the claimant's costs, making the total award to the libellant $135.27. The opinion of the district judge is reported in 24 F. 860. It appears from that that the judge charged to the libellant's own fault all his pain and suffering and all mere consequential damages, and charged the vessel with his wages at $2 per day, for 75 working days, making $150.
that the injuries complained of by libellant were caused by his own negligence. The libellant contends that the injuries were occasioned entirely through the fault of the vessel and her officers. The court finds, as a matter of fact, that the injuries to the libellant were occasioned partly through his own negligence and partly through the negligence of the officers of the vessel. It now occurs as a question of law whether the libellant under the above facts is entitled to a decree for divided damages. On this question, the opinions of the judges are in conflict."
On motion of the claimant, the question in difference was certified to this Court, and a decree was entered by the circuit court affirming the decree of the district court and awarding to the libellant a recovery of $135.27, with interest from the date of the decree of the district court, and $26.30 as the libellant's costs in the circuit court, making a total of $172. From that decree the claimant has appealed to this Court. Rev.Stat. §§ 652, 693; Dow v. Johnson, 100 U. S. 158.
the libellant was debarred from the recovery of any sum of money by reason of the fact that his own negligence contributed to the accident, although there was negligence also in the officers of the vessel. The question presented by the certificate is really that question, although stated in the certificate to be whether the libellant, under the facts presented, was entitled to a decree "for divided damages." It appears from the opinion of the district judge that he imposed upon the claimant "some part of the damage" which his concurrent negligence occasioned, while it does not appear from the record that the award of the $150 was the result of an equal division of the damages suffered by the libellant, or a giving to him of exactly one-half, or of more or less than one-half, of such damages.
The particular question before us has never been authoritiatively passed upon by this Court, and is, as stated by the district judge in his opinion, whether, in a court of admiralty in a case like the present, where personal injuries to the libellant arose from his negligence, concurring with that of the vessel, any damages can be awarded, or whether the libel must be dismissed, according to the rule in common law cases.
attending these disasters," the Court thought "the rule dividing the loss the most just and equitable, and as best tending to induce care and vigilance on both sides, in the navigation."
This rule, recognized as one of an equal division of the loss, has been applied by this Court in the following cases: Rogers v. The St. Charles, 19 How. 108; Chamberlain v. Ward, 21 How. 548; The Washington, 9 Wall. 513; The Sapphire, 11 Wall. 164; The Ariadne, 13 Wall. 475; The Continental, 14 Wall. 345; Atlee v. Packet Co., 21 Wall. 389; The Teutonia, 23 Wall. 77; The Sunnyside, 91 U. S. 208; The America, 92 U. S. 432; The Alabama, 92 U. S. 695; The Atlas, 93 U. S. 302; The Juniata, 90 U. S. 337; The Stephen Morgan, 94 U. S. 599; The Virginia Ehrman, 97 U. S. 309; The City of Hartford, 97 U. S. 323; The Civilta, 103 U. S. 699; The Connecticut, 102 U. S. 710; The North Star, 106 U. S. 17; The Sterling, 106 U. S. 647, and The Manitoba, 122 U. S. 97.
It may be well to refer particularly to some of these cases, which have a bearing upon the present question. In the case of The Washington, two vessels were held in fault for a collision which resulted in injuries to an innocent passenger on one of them, who proceeded against both in the same libel. This Court held that the damages to the passenger ought to be apportioned equally between the two vessels, with a reservation of a right in the libellant to collect the entire amount from either of them in case of the inability of the other to respond for her portion. In that case, the rule of the equal division of damages was extended to damages other than those sustained by either or both of the vessels in fault.
"But the plaintiff has elected to bring his suit in an admiralty court, which has jurisdiction of the case, notwithstanding the concurrent right to sue at law. In this court, the course of proceeding is in many respects different, and the rules of decision are different. The mode of pleading is different, the proceeding more summary and informal, and neither party has a right to trial by jury. An important difference as regards this case is the rule for estimating the damages. In the common law court, the defendant must pay all the damages or none. If there has been on the part of the plaintiffs such carelessness or want of skill as the common law would esteem to be contributory negligence, they can recover nothing. By the rule of the admiralty court, where there has been such contributory negligence or, in other words, when both have been in fault, the entire damages resulting from the collision must be equally divided between the parties. This rule of the admiralty commends itself quite as favorably in its influence in securing practical justice as the other, and the plaintiff who has the selection of the forum in which he will litigate cannot complain of the rule of that forum."
This Court therefore treated the case as if it had been one of a collision between two vessels.
"the moiety rule has been adopted for a better distribution of justice between mutual wrongdoers, and it ought not to be extended so far as to inflict positive loss on innocent parties."
by an insurance company for the loss of a canal boat and her cargo while she was in tow of a tug, through a collision between the Atlas and the tug. The tug was not sued. The district and circuit courts, in view of the fact that the collision was caused by the mutual fault of the Atlas and the tug, decreed to the libellant, against the Atlas, one-half of its damages. This Court held that, as the owner of the cargo which was on board of the canal boat was not in fault, the libellant was entitled to recover the entire amount of its damages from the Atlas, the tug not having been brought in as a party to the suit. By Rule 59 in admiralty, promulgated by this Court March 26, 1883, 112 U.S. 743, the claimant or respondent in a suit for damage by collision may compel the libellant to bring in another vessel or party alleged to have been in fault.
The case of The Juniata is worthy of attention. In that case, one Pursglove, the owner of a steam tug, filed a libel against the Juniata to recover for damage sustained by the tug by a collision between it and the Juniata and also damages for personal injuries to himself. The district court held both vessels to have been in fault, and made a decree of $10,000 in favor of Pursglove, for one-half of his damages. This decree was affirmed by the circuit court and by this Court. It is quite evident from the report of the case that damages were awarded to Pursglove for his personal injuries, although his tug was held to have been in fault.
Some of the cases referred to show that this Court has extended the rule of the division of damages to claims other than those for damages to the vessels which were in fault in a collision.
be found to have been in fault, the rules in force in the Court of Admiralty, so far as they have been at variance with the rules in force in the courts of common law, shall prevail."
The same provision was enacted in the same language by subdivision (9) of section 28, c. 57, 40 & 41 Vict., being the Judicature Act in relation to Ireland of August 14, 1877, L.R. 12 Stat. 362.
The admiralty rule of the division of damages was laid down by Sir William Scott in 1815 in The Woodrop-Sims, 2 Dodson 83, 85, where he says that if a loss occurs through a collision between two vessels where both parties are to blame, the rule of law is "that the loss must be apportioned between them, as having been occasioned by the fault of both of them." This rule was approved by the House of Lords, on an appeal from Scotland, in Hay v. Le Neve, 2 Shaw 395, in 1824.
The rule of the equal apportionment of the loss where both parties were in fault would seem to have been founded upon the difficulty of determining in such cases the degree of negligence in the one and the other. It is said by Cleirac, Us et Coutumes de la Mer, p. 68, that such rule of division is a rustic sort of determination, and such as arbiters and amicable compromisers of disputes commonly follow where they cannot discover the motives of the parties or when they see faults on both sides.
As to the particular question now presented for decision, there has been a conflict of opinion in the lower courts of the United States. In the case of Peterson v. The Chandos, 4 F. 645, 649, in the District Court for the District of Oregon, which was a libel in admiralty against a vessel for a personal injury, it was said by Judge Deady that the libellant could not recover for an injury caused by his own negligence which contributed to the result, even though the vessel was in fault. The same rule was recognized by him in the same court in a suit in admiralty in Holmes v. Oregon Railway, 5 F. 523, 538, and by Judge Hughes, in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in The Manhasset, 19 F. 430.
"Even in cases of marine torts, independent of prize, courts of admiralty are in the habit of giving or withholding damages upon enlarged principles of justice and equity, and have not circumscribed themselves within the positive boundaries of mere municipal law,"
and in The Palmyra, 12 Wheat. 1, 25 U. S. 17: "In the admiralty, the award of damages always rests in the sound discretion of the court, under all the circumstances."
boat. Those were not cases of collision, and there was no damage to the steam tug, and she alone was sued for the loss. Such cases were those of The William Murtaugh, 3 F. 404, and 17 F. 260; The Wm. Cox, 3 F. 645; affirmed by the circuit court, 9 F. 672; Connolly v. Ross, 11 F. 342; The Bordentown, 16 F. 270. Also in cases where the vessel towed was held to be in fault for not being in proper condition, Phila. Railroad Co. v. New England Transportation Co., 24 F. 505, and where a boat was injured by striking the bottom of a slip in unloading at the respondent's elevator, the boat herself being also in fault, Christian v. Van Tassel, 12 F. 884, and where the vessel towed was old and unseaworthy, The Syracuse, 18 F. 828; The Reba, 22 F. 546. In Snow v. Carruth, 1 Sprague 324, in the District Court for the District of Massachusetts, damage to goods carried by a vessel on freight was attributable partly to the fault of the carrier, and partly to the fault of the shipper, and, it being impossible to ascertain for what proportion each was responsible, the loss was divided equally between them.
nor gross nor inexcusable, and where the other circumstances present a strong case for his relief. We think this rule is applicable to all like cases of marine tort founded upon negligence and prosecuted in admiralty, as in harmony with the rule for the division of damages in cases of collision. The mere fact of the negligence of the libellant as partly occasioning the injuries to him, when they also occurred partly through the negligence of the officers of the vessel, does not debar him entirely from a recovery.
The necessary conclusion is that the question whether the libellant, upon the facts found, is entitled to a decree for divided damages must be answered in the affirmative in accordance with the judgment below. This being the only question certified, and the amount in dispute being insufficient to give this Court jurisdiction of the whole case, our jurisdiction is limited to reviewing this question. Chicago Union Nat. Bank v. Kansas City Bank, 136 U. S. 223. Whether in a case like this the decree should be for exactly one-half of the damages sustained or might, in the discretion of the court, be for a greater or less proportion of such damages is a question not presented for our determination upon this record, and we express no opinion upon it.

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