Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/293/155/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:39:07+00:00

Document:
1. In § 33 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, giving to "any seaman" injured in the course of his employment a cause of action for damages similar to that given by the statutes of the United States to railway employees, the term "any seaman" includes the master of the vessel. P. 293 U. S. 156.
2. This provision should be construed liberally; "seaman," in this particular context, should be interpreted in its broad sense, not in the narrower sense distinguishing the crew from the master, found in other statutes, and this accords with the purpose of the Act as revealed by its history and by other legislation in pari materia. Pp. 293 U. S. 157-159.
3. Section 713, c. 18, of Title 46 of the U.S.Code, purporting to define master and seaman, must be confined to the sections in chapter 18 which were derived from the same earlier legislation as § 713; it is inapplicable to § 33 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, placed in the same chapter 18 by the compilers of the Code. P. 293 U. S. 160.
4. The compilers of the U.S.Code were not authorized by Congress to amend existing law. P. 293 U. S. 161.
334 Mo. 396, 67 S.W. 2d 47, reversed.
Certiorari, 292 U.S. 617, to review the affirmance of a judgment dismissing the complaint in an action for damages for the death of the master of a vessel. The action was brought by the administratrix of the master against the owner of the vessel.
The master of a tugboat met his death on the waters of the Ohio river through the negligence of a pilot employed to navigate the tug. The personal representative brought suit against the owner under the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, § 33 (41 Stat. 1007, 46 U.S.C. § 688) for the recovery of damages. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the complaint on the ground that a "master" is not a "seaman" within the meaning of the statute. The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the judgment for the owner. 334 Mo. 396, 67 S.W.2d 47. The case is here on certiorari. 292 U.S. 617.
limited to one who is an ordinary seaman and nothing more, a seaman, as opposed to the master or an officer. One can find a like range of variation in the use of the word "crew."
"It is sometimes used to comprehend all persons composing the ship's company, including the master; sometimes to comprehend the officers and common seamen, excluding the master, and sometimes to comprehend the common seamen only, excluding the master and officers."
United States v. Winn, 3 Sumn. 209, 213-214, Fed.Cas. No. 16,740 (Story, J.); cf. The Buena Ventura, supra, 243 F. 799 (Hough, J.); The Bound Brook, 146 F. 160, 164; United States v. Huff, 13 F. 630. What concerns us here and now is not the scope of the class of seamen at other times and in other contexts. Our concern is to define the meaning for the purpose of a particular statute which must be read in the light of the mischief to be corrected and the end to be attained. Congress knew that men employed upon a ship were without a remedy in damages for negligence beyond their cure and maintenance, unless the injury was a consequence of the unseaworthiness of the ship or a defect in her equipment. Chelentis v. Luckenbach S.S. Co., 247 U. S. 372, 247 U. S. 384; Cortes v. Baltimore Insular Line, supra. This restriction upon remedies was applicable to ordinary seamen, but applicable also to officers and even to the master. The George, 1 Sumn. 151, Fed.Cas. No. 5,329 (Story, J.); The Balsa, supra.
"It is said that the allowance by the maritime law belongs to the seamen only, and cannot be claimed by the master of the ship. . . . No authority is cited for this position, and I am not aware that any exists."
stick too closely to the letter if we say that Congress had the will to give damages for wounds or death to the crew at large or their dependents and to leave the master and his dependents out. An ancient evil was to be uprooted, and uprooted altogether. It was not to be left with fibers still clinging to the soil.
"in any suit to recover damages for any injury sustained on board vessel or in its service, seamen having command shall not be held to be fellow servants with those under their authority."
Masters were thus recognized as within the genus seamen, though they were seamen having command. The decision of this Court in the Chelentis case gave warning that the change, if any, thus effected did not avail to increase the damages beyond the cost of cure and maintenance. Thus warned, the lawmakers amended § 20 of the Act of 1915 by substituting § 33 of the Act of 1920. We cannot believe that, in this process of amendment, the word "seamen" lost the broad meaning that it had in the law to be amended, and was narrowed by the exclusion of a particular species of seamen -- i.e., seamen having command. The change is too sudden to be accepted as intended unless unmistakably declared.
crew of any vessel." Section 3. The exclusion was at the request of seamen who notified the committee in charge that they preferred the remedy for damages under the act of 1920 to the benefits that would be theirs under a system of workmen's compensation. See Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., on S. 3170 at p. 17; Cong.Rec. 69th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 68, part 5, p. 5908; Nogueira v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 281 U. S. 128, 281 U. S. 134-136. The bill was accordingly amended in its progress through the House by declaring the exception. There can be little doubt that Congress did this in the belief that, under the statutes then in force, master and crew alike were already adequately protected in case of injury or death. The belief had a sound foundation in the act of 1920. Cf. Nogueira v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., supra at p. 281 U. S. 134.
p. 282 U. S. 239. It means that, "for the purposes of the chapter seaman' shall include persons who otherwise might be deemed not to be seamen." It puts into the class some that might otherwise be excluded; it does not take anyone out who would otherwise be there.
The case for the respondent reduces itself to this -- that, by express or implied antithesis, the word "seaman" is used in many statutes to designate a class of mariners exclusive of the master. It is also true, however, that, in these same statutes, a seaman excludes a stevedore. A goodly number of the statutes where the antithesis is sharpest lay a duty upon the master to be performed for the seamen under him. In laws so framed, there is no room for construction. A goodly number in addition give a remedy to seamen for wages wrongfully withheld, or define terms of payment that agreement may not vary. In respect of dealings of that order, the maritime law, by inveterate tradition, has made the ordinary seaman a member of a favored class. He is a "ward of the admiralty," often ignorant and helpless, and so in need of protection against himself as well as others. The master, on the other hand, is able in most instances to drive a bargain for himself, and then, when the bargain is made, to stand upon his rights. Discrimination may thus be rational in respect of remedies for wages. The Bethulia, 200 F. 876; The Putnick, 291 F. 902. It is neither rational nor just if extended to remedies for bodily wounds. At such times, master and seaman are approximately equal. Congress did not mean that the master, any more than the seaman, should be left without a remedy if wounded in his body, or that his dependents were to be helpless if the wounds resulted in his death.
"In the construction of this chapter, every person having the command of any vessel belonging to any citizen of the United States shall be deemed to be the 'master' thereof, and every person (apprentices excepted) who shall be employed or engaged to serve in any capacity on board the same shall be deemed and taken to be a 'seaman;' and the term 'vessel' shall be understood to comprehend every description of vessel navigating on any sea or channel, lake or river, to which the provisions of this chapter may be applicable, and the term 'owner' shall be taken and understood to comprehend all the several persons, if more than one, to whom the vessel shall belong."
"That, to avoid doubt in the construction of this act, every person having the command of any ship belonging to any citizen of the United States shall, within the meaning and for the purposes of this act, be deemed and taken to be the 'master' of such ship, and that every person (apprentices excepted) who shall be employed or engaged to serve in any capacity on board the same shall be deemed and taken to be a 'seaman' within the meaning and for the purposes of this act. . . ."
"The matter set forth in the Code . . . shall establish prima facie the laws of the United States, general and permanent in their nature in force on the 7th day of December, 1925, but nothing in this Act shall be construed as repealing or amending any such law, or as enacting as new law any matter contained in the Code. In case of any inconsistency arising through omission or otherwise between the provisions of any section of this Code and the corresponding portion of legislation heretofore enacted, effect shall be given for all purposes whatsoever to such enactments."

References: § 33
 § 713
 § 33
 § 33
 § 688
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 § 20
 § 33
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