Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/386/724.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 13:19:23+00:00

Document:
Theodore H. Friedman, New York City, for petitioner.
William M. Kimball, New York City, for respondent.
'If someone is injured solely by reason of an act or omission on the part of any member of a crew found [386 U.S. 724 , 726] to be possessed of the competence of men of his calling, there can be no recovery unless the act or omission is proved to be negligent.' 356 F.2d, at 251.
It is here unnecessary to trace the history of the judicial development and expansion of the doctrine of unseaworthiness. That task was recently performed in Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc., 362 U.S. 539 , 543-549, 929-932, where the Court, rejecting the notion that a shipowner is liable for temporary unseaworthiness only if he is negligent, concluded: 'There is no suggestion in any of the decisions that the duty is less onerous with respect to ... an unseaworthy condition which may be only temporary. ... What has evolved is a complete divorcement of unseaworthiness liability from concepts of negligence.' 362 U.S., at 549 , 550. It is that principle which we conclude the lower courts failed to apply in their decisions in this case.
We likewise see no reason to draw that line here. That being so, under Mahnich it makes no difference that respondent's vessel was fully manned or that there was a sufficient complement of seamen engaged in the overall docking operation, for there were too few men assigned 'when and where' the job of uncoiling the rope was to be done. 5 And under Crumady it makes no difference that the third mate and two men he assigned to perform the job were themselves competent seamen, or that the rope was itself a sound piece of gear. By assigning too few men to uncoil and carry the heavy rope, the mate caused both the men and the rope to be misused. [386 U.S. 724 , 728] This analysis, we believe, is required by a clear recognition of the needs of the seaman for protection from dangerous conditions beyond his control and the role of the unseaworthiness doctrine which, by shifting the risk to the shipowner, provides that protection. If petitioner had been ordered to use a defective pulley in lifting the rope, he would clearly be protected by the doctrine of unseaworthiness. If the pulley itself were sound but petitioner had been ordered to load too much rope on it, he would likewise be protected. If four men had been assigned to uncoil the rope but two of the men lacked the strength of ordinary efficient seamen, petitioner would again be protected. Should this protection be denied merely because the shipowner, instead of supplying petitioner with unsafe gear, insufficient gear, or incompetent manual assistance, assigned him insufficient manual assistance? We think not. When this Court extended the shipowner's liability for unseaworthiness to longshoremen performing seamen's work, Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85 -either on board or on the pier, Gutierrez v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 373 U.S. 206 , either with the ship's gear or the stevedore's gear, Alaska S.S. Co. v. Petterson, 347 U.S. 396 , either as employees of an independent stevedre or as employees of a ship-owner pro hac vice, Reed v. The Yaka, 373 U.S. 410 -we noted that 'the hazards of marine service, the helplessness of the men to ward off the perils of unseaworthiness, the harshness of forcing them to shoulder their losses alone, and the broad range of the 'humanitarian policy' of the doctrine of seaworthiness,' id., at 413, 83 S.Ct. at 1352, should prevent the shipowner from delegating, shifting, or escaping his duty by using the men or gear of others to perform the ship's work. By the same token, the shipowner should not be able to escape liability merely because he has used men rather than machines or physical equipment to perform that work. [386 U.S. 724 , 729] Petitioner is entitled to present his theory of unseaworthiness to the jury, and the case is reversed and remanded for that purpose. It is so ordered.
Mr. Justice WHITE, with whom Mr. Justice HARLAN, Mr. Justice BRENNAN, and Mr. Justice STEWART join, dissenting.
Under the prevailing cases in this Court, there can be no doubt that a negligent or improvident act of a competent officer, crewman, or longshoreman can result in unseaworthiness if it renders otherwise seaworthy equipment unfit for the purpose for which it is used. Crumady v. The Joachim Hendrik Fisser, 358 U.S. 423 . Likewise, petitioner argues, an order of a ship's officer assigning too few men to do a particular task creates an unseaworthy condition because the ship is under-manned in this specific respect. He challenges therefore the prevailing rule in the Second Circuit requiring plaintiff in situations such as this to prove not only that the order was improvident but also that the officer issuing it was not equal in competence to ordinary men in the calling. See Pinto v. States Marine Corp. of Delaware, 2 Cir., 296 F. 2d 1; Ezekiel v. Volusia S.S. Co., 2 Cir., 297 F.2d 215, 91 A.L.R.2d 1013, and authorities cited therein. The majority agrees with the petitioner, at least where the improvident order requires the performance of tasks whose safe completion calls for the assignment of more men. The majority holds that the case should have gone to the jury on both the negligence and unseaworthiness claims.
In my view, however, this case should be disposed of on other grounds. While it is true that unseaworthiness is legally independent of negligence, Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc., 362 U.S. 539 , it cannot be denied that in many cases unseaworthiness and negligence overlap. And on the facts of this case I think the claim of negl- [386 U.S. 724 , 730] igence was identical with the claim of unseaworthiness. As the majority says, petitioner's sole assertion is that assigning two men instead of three or four to put out the line was 'negligence and made the vessel unseaworthy.' The testimony supporting the claim was that safe and prudent seamanship would require three or four men to move the line. But the jury ruled against petitioner on his negligence claim, thereby deciding that the mate employed ordinary care in assigning two men to do the task. To me, the jury simply disagreed with petitioner's witness and, based on the testimony of petitioner himself and that of the seaman who helped him, decided that it was not imprudent seamanship to have two men move the line rather than three or four. Had the jury thought otherwise and considered the job to require more than two men, it would have found the issuance of the order to be a negligent act. It is perhaps possible to conceive circumstances in which the assignment of two men to do the job of three would not be negligence, but I find no such special facts in this record. In my view, the adverse verdict on negligence makes unnecessary a retrial on the unseaworthiness claim even if one adopts the majority's resolution of the legal question presented by petitioner.
[ Footnote 1 ] 356 F.2d 247.
[ Footnote 2 ] Compare American President Lines, Ltd. v. Reder n, 9 Cir., 345 F. 2d 629, with The Magdapur, D.C., 3 F.Supp. 971; Koleris v. S. S. Good Hope, D.C., 241 F.Supp. 967; and the instant case. Other cases from the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits also seem to suggest a result different from the one reached in the instant case. See, e.g., Ferrante v. Swedish American Lines, 3 Cir., 331 F.2d 571, cert. dismissed, 379 U.S. 801 , 85 S. Ct. 10; Thompson v. Calmar S.S. Corp., 3 Cir., 331 F.2d 657, cert. denied, 379 U.S. 913 ; Hroncich v. American President Lines, Ltd., 3 Cir., 334 F.2d 282; Scott v. Isbrandtsen Co., 4 Cir., 327 F.2d 113; Blassingill v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 9 Cir., 336 F.2d 367; June T., Inc. v. King, 5 Cir., 290 F.2d 404. For a critical discussion of the decision below, see 66 Col.L.Rev. 1180 (1966).
[ Footnote 3 ] See generally Gilmore & Black, The Law of Admiralty 6-38 et seq. ( 1957).
[ Footnote 4 ] This statement, of course, was made in the context of our holding that unseaworthiness results when a member of the crew is 'not equal in disposition to the ordinary men of that calling.' 348 U.S., at 340 , 75 S. Ct., at 385. That is so, we explained, because the shipowner has a duty to provide a crew 'competent to meet the contingencies of the voyage.' Ibid. The Court of Appeals here recognized that 'the vessel must be manned by an adequate and proper number of men,' 356 F.2d, at 251 (see, e.g., DeLima v. Trinidad Corp., 2 Cir., 302 F.2d 585; June T., Inc. v. King, 290 F.2d 404), but then proceeded to draw a distinction between a well-manned ship and a well-manned operation aboard the ship.
[ Footnote 5 ] Under Mitchell, it makes no difference that the unseaworthy condition caused by inadequate manpower 'may be only temporary.' 362 U.S., at 549 . See generally Note, 76 Harv.L.Rev. 819 (1963).

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