Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/315/752/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 20:07:11+00:00

Document:
l. Contributory negligence and assumption of risk are not available as defenses to suits under the Jones Act; the admiralty doctrine of comparative negligence applies. P. 315 U. S. 755.
2. Upon the evidence, the plaintiff in this action under the Jones Act for personal injuries suffered in a fall caused by his use of a defective wrench, which he had asked his superior to replace, was entitled to have the case submitted to the jury on the issue whether his injuries resulted from defect or insufficiency, due to the employer's negligence, in it appliances, and the dismissal of his complaint was a denial of his statutory right of jury trial. P. 315 U. S. 756.
3. Under the Jones Act, it is a duty of the employer to furnish reasonably safe and suitable simple tools when he is aware that those in use are defective; the employee need not furnish his own simple tools when he find those of the employer defective. P. 315 U. S. 758.
4. The trial court's exclusion of opinion evidence as to the best type of tool for the work was not error warranting reversal. P. 315 U. S. 758.
Certiorari, 314 U.S. 595, to review the affirmance of a judgment dismissing the complaint in an action for personal injuries under the Jones Act.
whether guaranteed by the Constitution or provided by statute, should be jealously guarded by the courts. The present case is a suit by petitioner under the Jones Act [Footnote 1] for personal injuries sustained when he fell because the wrench he was using to tighten a nut slipped under the torque applied to it. We are called upon to determine whether on the evidence adduced by petitioner, and in contravention of accepted juridical standards, petitioner was wrongfully deprived of his statutory right to jury trial by the action of the trial court in dismissing his complaint, [Footnote 2] thereby refusing to submit the case to a jury which had been duly empaneled to try it. In holding that petitioner had failed to prove facts sufficient to warrant submitting the issue of respondent's negligence to the jury, the trial court relied on the so-called simple tool doctrine. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 119 F.2d 800. The novel questions thus presented in the administration of the Jones Act prompted us to grant certiorari. 314 U.S. 595.
"said for me [petitioner] to look in the tool closet and see if there was one in there, and I went up there and couldn't find any, and I believe he said he sent an order out for one."
that a monkey wrench was. A monkey wrench could "probably" be used on any nut. At the time of the accident, petitioner was using the worn, S-shaped, end wrench to tighten the nuts after changing the oil strainer. There was about five-eighths of an inch of thread on the studs, and petitioner had changed the wrench on one nut four times. As he started the fifth tightening, the wrench slipped, causing him to fall from the eighteen inch square platform on which he was standing to the catwalk eighteen inches below. In the course of the fall, petitioner sustained an injury to his right side which struck an angle iron alongside the catwalk.
"injury or death . . . by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its [the carrier's] negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves or other equipment."
first of those requests was about three weeks prior to the accident, the last but two or three days before it occurred. At that time, the chief engineer said he sent out an order for one, but it was not forthcoming in the two or three days intervening before the accident, despite the fact that the Dongan Hills docked at Manhattan Island six or seven times a day. While the best tool for doing the work was a straight end wrench of the proper size, petitioner had access to a monkey wrench which "probably" could be used on any nut. We think these facts entitled petitioner to have the jury consider whether his injury was caused by any "defect or insufficiency, due to its [respondent's] negligence, in its . . . appliances." That is to say, it was for the jury to decide whether a monkey wrench was a reasonably safe and suitable tool for petitioner's work, whether respondent's failure, although it had at least two days', and possibly three weeks', notice of the defect, to supply petitioner with a new wrench amounted to negligence on its part, and whether respondent, after it had knowledge of the defect, might not have reasonably foreseen the possibility of resulting harm if it allowed the worn wrench to remain in use. Cf. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith, supra. Without doubt, the case is close, and a jury might find either way. But that is no reason for a court to usurp the function of the jury. We are satisfied that a due respect for the statutory guaranty of the right of jury trial, with its resulting benefits, requires the submission of this case to the jury.
Since there must be a new trial, we deem it appropriate to state that, in our opinion, no reversible error was committed when the trial court refused to allow opinion testimony as to the best type of tool for the work. [Footnote 8] Respondent's duty was not to supply the best tools, but only tools which were reasonably safe and suitable. Cf. The Tawmie, 80 F.2d 792; The Cricket, 71 F.2d 61.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded to the District Court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE, MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS, and MR. JUSTICE REED are of opinion that the judgment below should be affirmed.
41 Stat. 988, 1007, 46 U.S.C. § 688.
The complaint set forth two causes of action -- the first for personal injuries and the second for maintenance and cure. Respondent moved to dismiss only the first cause of action. At the same time, in settlement of the second cause of action, respondent offered to consent to judgment for loss of wages from the time of the accident until petitioner returned to work. This offer was refused by petitioner's counsel, and the second cause was thereupon dismissed. The Circuit Court of Appeals, sua sponte, directed that judgment be entered on the second cause of action for petitioner in the amount admitted to be due from respondent. That judgment is not in issue here. Only the first cause of action, that for personal injuries, survives for our consideration.
Petitioner was the sole witness in his own behalf. The trial court did not allow an opinion witness, called for the purpose of establishing the best type of wrench for the work petitioner was doing at the time of the accident, to testify.
See 3 Labatt, Master and Servant (2d ed.), pp. 2476-2484.
Compare McCarthy v. Palmer, 113 F.2d 721, with Spain v. Powell, 90 F.2d 580.
If the doctrine is but a phase of assumption of risk or contributory negligence, as has been suggested (see Labatt, op. cit., pp. 2479, 2480, 2484), it is manifestly not applicable to actions under the Jones Act, for those common law affirmative defenses are not available in such actions. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith, 305 U. S. 424.
And, if the scope of the doctrine is that a master is under no duty to furnish reasonably safe an suitable simple tools (see Allen Gravel Co. v. Yarbrough, 133 Miss. 652, 98 So. 117; Middleton v. National Box Co., 38 F.2d 89), the doctrine is hardly compatible with the scheme of the Jones Act fixing liability on a master for injuries caused by defects and insufficiencies in his appliances due to his negligence.

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