Opinion ID: 656631
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A Vessel's Duties to a Longshoreworker

Text: 9 Any discussion of the scope of the duties imposed by section 905(b) must begin with Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Ltd. v. De Los Santos, 451 U.S. 156, 101 S.Ct. 1614, 68 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981). In De Los Santos, a longshoreman was injured while loading cargo into the ship's hold. The cargo fell from a pallet suspended by a winch, which was part of the ship's gear. The winch's braking mechanism had allegedly been malfunctioning for two days prior to the accident. In defining the vessel's duty of reasonable care under the circumstances the Court drew a line between turn over duties, which arise before the vessel is turned over to the stevedore and its longshoreworkers, and the other duties that arise after the vessel is turned-over. The case before us involves only the first type of duty--that which arises prior to turn over. 10 De Los Santos determined that a vessel's turn over duties extend at least to: 1) having the ship, its equipment, gear and tools, and the work space to be used in stevedoring operations in such condition that an experienced stevedore can by exercising reasonable care carry on its cargo operations with reasonable safety (the turn over duty of safe condition); and, 2) warning the stevedore of hidden dangers that are known to the vessel or should have been known to it in the exercise of reasonable care with respect to any hazards on the ship, in its equipment, gear or tools, or in the work space (the turn over duty to warn). 451 U.S. at 167, 101 S.Ct. at 1622; Bjaranson v. Botelho Shipping Corp., 873 F.2d 1204, 1207 (9th Cir.1989). It is the first turn over duty (safe condition) that is at issue here. 11 Riggs contends that the turn over duty of safe condition extends to cargo hazards that exist at the time of turn over, both open and obvious and concealed. The vessel argues that under De Los Santos and the law of this circuit the turn over duty of safe condition extends only to the vessel and its equipment and not to its cargo at all. 5 The vessel is clearly wrong, at least in part. Ninth Circuit precedent squarely holds that the turn over duty of safe condition encompasses concealed hazards in cargo on-loaded by foreign stevedores. Turner v. Japan Lines, Ltd., 651 F.2d 1300 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 967, 103 S.Ct. 294, 74 L.Ed.2d 278 (1982). Therefore, the only question for us to resolve is whether it extends to open and obvious defects in such cargo as well. We hold that it does.