Court Opinion

ID: 9456990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:08:55.986925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:10.517653
License: Public Domain

BUTZNER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I believe the district judge properly denied the shipowner’s motion to set aside the verdict for the plaintiff. At a point not more than twenty steps away from Swords’ station, the guardrail of the ship admittedly was defective, a condition which would warrant a jury in finding unseaworthiness. More important, on the question of causation the *1327evidence showed that the chains sagged to 16 inches above the deck — less than the height of a man’s knee. Such an obstacle could easily trip a seaman stirring about his station to keep alert on a dark, cold night. The scope of our review, as stated in Rogers v. Missouri, Pac. R. Co., 352 U.S. 500, 507, 77 S.Ct. 443, 449, 1 L.Ed.2d 493 (1957), “is narrowly limited to the single inquiry whether, with reason, the conclusion may be drawn that negligence of the employer played any part at all in the injury or death.” Though here we deal with unseaworthiness instead of negligence, our inquiry may go no further than whether the jury could conclude with reason that the defective guardrail played any part at all in Swords’ falling overboard. The cause of death under circumstances no less bizarre has been held a jury issue in both Jones Act cases, see e. g., Pollard v. Seas Shipping Co., Inc., 146 F.2d 875 (2d Cir. 1945), and FELA cases, see e.g., Lavender v. Kurn, 327 U.S. 645, 66 S.Ct. 740, 90 L.Ed. 916 (1946).
Sadler v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 159 F.2d 784 (4th Cir. 1947), is not to the contrary, for there we were concerned only with negligence, not causation. Without elaborating, we held that “the evidence of negligence with respect * * * to the condition of the guardrails” was insufficient to take the case to the jury. 159 F.2d at 786. But as to the cause of drowning, we said:
“There is nothing to indicate that he was shoved or pushed overboard, or that he was intoxicated, or that he was attempting to commit suicide. Under such circumstances the cause of the fall can no more be said to be speculative than in the case of a man found in the hold of a vessel beneath an unguarded hatch. See Johnson v. Griffiths S. S. Co. 9 Cir., 150 F.2d 224. It is the duty of the vessel to provide a safe working place for members of its crew; and where there is evidence that it failed to do so and proof of circumstances from which it can reasonably be inferred that injury resulted from such failure, the case is for the jury. It is elementary that proximate cause need not be established by direct evidence but may be proven by circumstances.” 159 F.2d at 786.