Opinion ID: 663087
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: What Triggers the Active Operations Duty

Text: 58 A vessel may be liable to a longshore worker only when the vessel, whether acting jointly with the stevedore or individually, breached a duty it owed the injured worker. In the longshoring context, we hold that to trigger the active operations duty, the vessel must have substantially controlled or been in charge of (i) the area in which the hazard existed, (ii) the instrumentality which caused the injury, or (iii) the specific activities the stevedore undertook. Cf. Sarauw v. Oceanic Navigation Corp. (Sarauw I), 622 F.2d 1168, 1172 (3d Cir.1980), vacated, 451 U.S. 966, 101 S.Ct. 2039, 68 L.Ed.2d 344 (1981), reinstated (Sarauw II), 655 F.2d 526 (3d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 914, 102 S.Ct. 1767, 72 L.Ed.2d 173 (1982); Hurst v. Triad Shipping Co., 554 F.2d 1237, 1252 n. 38 (3d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 861, 98 S.Ct. 188, 54 L.Ed.2d 134 (1977). The purpose behind the control/charge component is to ensure that the vessel is not held vicariously liable for injuries the stevedore causes and that the active operations duty does not supplant the turnover duty/duty to warn and duty to intervene in areas under the stevedore's control. See REST.2D TORTS Sec. 431 cmt. a. See generally infra Part IV.F. Thus, for example, the vessel's mere reservation of the right to intervene to protect the ship's and its crew's interests, or to eject the stevedore at any time, does not amount to the substantial control necessary to trigger the vessel's active operations duty as long as the vessel does not exercise those reserved rights. 59 A jury may find that the vessel exercised control or took charge over an area either because it never turned exclusive control of the area over to the stevedore but retained substantial control, or because the vessel substantially interfered, by invitation or otherwise, with the stevedore's exercise of exclusive control, such as by actively intervening in the area. We think the evidence here sufficient for the question of the attachment of the active operations duty to go to a jury. Assuming for the moment that the vessel at some point had turned exclusive control of the deck over to the stevedore, a jury could reasonably conclude that the vessel substantially interfered with the stevedoring operations when it hosed down the deck of a portion of the ship the longshore workers used for ingress and egress to rid it of cement dust. That is, a jury could determine that when the second mate introduced a foreign substance onto the deck, he exercised control over it and actively operated in the area. 60 Alternatively, a finding of active control is supported by the testimony indicating that the crew generally remained on the affected portion of the deck during the stevedore's unloading operations and that the crew was responsible for maintaining the deck, evidence which tends to show that the crew never turned exclusive control of the area over to the stevedore but retained substantial control over the area. Here both Davis and Randolph testified that it was customary for the vessel, not the stevedore, to maintain the deck by removing slippery conditions. In other words, the vessel did not maintain the deck only in extraordinary situations when it needed to exercise its reserved powers because the stevedore neglected its responsibility to do so. In sum, the area may have been under the actual control of the ship rather than contained within the exclusive confines of the stevedore's cargo operations. Cf. Sarauw II, 655 F.2d at 528 (holding that a gangplank supplied by the stevedore and used exclusively by a longshore worker was not within the confines of the cargo operations within the meaning of Scindia because the gangway was a basic appurtenance of the vessel).