Court Opinion

ID: 9445890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:40:19.449308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:26.447468
License: Public Domain

MAGRUDER, Chief Judge
(concurring).
The court’s opinion is quite right in ruling that the applicable law in this case is federal maritime law, of which the Supreme Court of the United States is necessarily the ultimate expositor. Therefore, we need not be concerned with the Massachusetts cases, which seem to say that where an occupier merely permits a person to enter the premises for his own convenience, the occupier owes such person no duty other than a duty to refrain from intentional or willful and wanton injury. Cf. Murphy v. Boston & Maine R. R., 1924, 248 Mass. 78, 142 N.E. 782.
Since the general maritime law is being constantly enriched by common law analogies (see Jansson v. Swedish American Line, 1 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 212, 217, 30 A.L.R.2d 1385), it may be that the Supreme Court will adopt, as part of the general maritime law, the categories of trespasser, licensee, and business visitor, with differently defined duties with respect to each, as laid down in Am.L.Inst., Restatement of Torts § 329 et seq.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court conceivably might regard this approach as putting the cart before the horse. Instead of first determining plaintiff’s status on the premises by reference to a few rather rigid categories, with the occupier's obligation predetermined once the plaintiff’s status is settled, the Supreme Court might insist upon looking at the special facts of the particular case so as to fashion a duty on the occupier’s part appropriate to the case. Thus, it is conceivable that the Supreme Court would say that, in the very unique fact situation presented in the case at bar, the owner of the Christina J owed to seamen crossing her decks to reach a contiguous vessel the same duty of care to furnish a reasonably safe place to work, including a reasonably safe mode of exit and ingress, as the owner of the Christina J owed to members of the crew of the latter vessel.
But I know of no Supreme Court decision pointing to the foregoing conclusion. In the absence of such controlling authority it seems to me that, having in view the customs of the trade, the most that could be inferred from the facts of the case at bar would be that the Christina J permitted her deck to be used as a convenient crossing place whereby persons could reach a contiguous vessel; that persons so crossing her deck were there for no purpose directly or indirectly serving the business interests of the Christina J; that the duty of the occupier in such a case could be no greater than a duty of care in the conduct of dangerous activities, and a duty of care to make known to such bare licensees any dangerous conditions of the premises of which the occupier is subjectively aware, and of which the occupier has reason to believe may not be discovered by the licensee himself. See Restatement of Torts §§ 341, 342.
Since there is no evidence from which it could be inferred that the defendant violated the duty so defined, I concur in the judgment of the court.