Opinion ID: 539878
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Subsequent Decisions

Text: 14 At oral argument, Sun's counsel acknowledged that there is a substantial body of authority holding that, if the employer is independently negligent through one of his other servants, the negligence of the supervisory employee is to be considered on a contributory negligence analysis, but not as a total bar. The Second Circuit had an opportunity to revisit the Walker rule in Johannessen v. Gulf Trading & Transp. Co., 633 F.2d 653 (2d Cir.1980). In that case, the ship's captain died after he descended into a gas-filled tank on the ship. The rescue attempt was unsuccessful, apparently due to negligence on the part of his crewmen. After reviewing the Jones Act, the court concluded that [a]lthough the master of a vessel has total charge of all operations, the negligence of his subordinate is not imputed to him for purposes of a Jones Act claim. Id. at 655 n. 2. 15 In Viller's Seafood Co. v. Vest, 813 F.2d 339 (11th Cir.1987), the Eleventh Circuit specifically declined to follow Peymann. The plaintiff, a ship's captain, was injured when a ladder upon which he was standing became unfastened and toppled. The district court held that the ship had no liability to the captain because the injury was caused wholly by his own lack of care. Id. at 341. The Eleventh Circuit rejected this view, and limited Walker to cases in which the injured officer actually knew of the existence of the unseaworthy condition before the accident. We are unwilling to extend the doctrine to a case in which no misconduct or actual knowledge of the existence of an unseaworthy condition has been proven. Id. at 342-43. 16 The Fifth Circuit similarly rejected a claim that the plaintiff was barred from recovery due to his failure to carry out a duty owed by him to his employer. Kendrick v. Illinois Cent. Gulf R.R. Co., 669 F.2d 341 (5th Cir.1982) (FELA case). The court, citing Walker and Peymann, acknowledged that the nonperformance of a duty may offset the employer's liability. Id. at 344 n. 6. Nevertheless, the claim would not be totally barred: 17 For even if an employee's injury resulted in part from his own negligence, whether in failing to carry out his duties or in some other respect, such negligence would only reduce, not bar, recovery unless the employer were not negligent at all and the employee's negligence was the sole cause of his injury. 18 Id. at 344. 19 In Tringali v. Hathaway Mach. Co., 796 F.2d 553 (1st Cir.1986), the plaintiff was the boat's master. He was injured when a winch malfunctioned and mangled his leg. The defendant, citing both Peymann and Walker, claimed that the plaintiff should have recognized and corrected the dangerous condition that led to his injury. The district court disagreed, and the First Circuit affirmed. Walker and Peymann were distinguishable, the court concluded, because in those cases the ship's officer had actual knowledge of the dangerous conditions and also had a duty to remedy them. Id. at 557.