Court Opinion

ID: 9451336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:14:20.013043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:40.305375
License: Public Domain

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I dissent.
The central proposition of the Court’s opinion is the rule stated in Pinto v. States Marine Corp. of Delaware, 296 F.2d 1 (2 Cir. 1961), cert. den. 369 U.S. 843, 82 S.Ct. 874, 7 L.Ed.2d 847 and in Ezekiel v. Volusia S.S. Co., 297 F.2d 215 (2 Cir. 1961), cert. den. 369 U.S. 843, 82 S.Ct. 874, 7 L.Ed.2d 847, that the doctrine of unseaworthiness does not extend to an injury caused by “an order improvidently given by a concededly competent officer on a ship admitted to be in all respects seaworthy,” Gilmore & Black, The Law of Admiralty (1957), 320. Gilmore and Black call such a ease “an almost theoretical construct.” For two reasons I do not believe this proposition even if it still has vitality should control this case.
First, the proposition evidently refers to cases where there is alleged to be a negligent creation of unseaworthiness. Gilmore & Black cited Chelentis v. Luck-enbach S.S. Co., 247 U.S. 372, 38 S.Ct. 501, 62 L.Ed. 1171 (1918), McMahan w The Panamolga, 127 F.Supp. 659 (D.Md. 1955), and Imperial Oil, Ltd. v. Drlik, 234 F.2d 4 (6 Cir. 1956), all dealing either with negligence or the negligent creation of unseaworthiness. In this case, however, appellant’s claim for unseaworthiness which was dismissed did not depend on negligence; it survives the verdict making it implicit that there was no negligent order given.
Second, appellant does not admit that the ship was “in all respects seaworthy.” His case is that the ship was unsea-worthy because of the manner in which the rope was used. Whether an appliance or item of gear is serviceable and in good order cannot be determined abstractly. It depends on whether the gear is reasonably fit for its intended use. Inquiry into this involves determining both the purpose for which the gear is used, and the manner in which it is used. This is precisely what occurred in American President Lines, Ltd. v. Redfern, 345 F.2d 629 (9 Cir. 1965), Ferrante v. Swedish American Lines, 331 F.2d 571 (3 Cir. 1964), and Crumady v. The Joachim Hen-drick Fisser, 358 U.S. 423, 79 S.Ct. 445, 3 L.Ed.2d 413 (1959). In each of these cases there was unseaworthiness because gear was employed in a manner which turned out to be improper. In Ferrante it was “undisputed that the ship’s equipment — the manila ropes — was fit for its intended use.” Yet it was used in an abnormal manner, and injury resulted. And in Redfern, the court said, “[a] stuck sea valve * * * is suitable only if operated by two men; otherwise it constitutes a dangerous condition,” and held that the vessel was unseaworthy. In Crumady, unseaworthiness resulted when a circuit breaker safety device in a winch was set for a stress greater than the same working load on the unloading gear.
I see no meaningful difference between rendering safe equipment defective and unsafe, which is Crumady, see also International Nav. Co. v. Farr & Bailey Mfg. Co., 181 U.S. 218, 21 S.Ct. 591, 45 L.Ed. 830 (1901), and using equipment in a manner which makes it unsafe, which is Ferrante, Redfern, and this case.
*253The fact that the unsafe method arose out of an order does not excuse the ship. An order usually lurks in the background of the act of a seaman in the performance of his duties.
Nor is the fact that the crew was as a whole complete a bar to recovery. In the first place appellant alleges that it was the method of employing gear which made the vessel unseaworthy, not crew size or competence. Secondly, the argument that the crew as a whole was adequate is merely stating in another form the defense rejected in Mahnich v. Southern S.S. Co., 321 U.S. 96, 64 S.Ct. 455, 88 L.Ed. 561 (1944), that the vessel had available safe equipment which was not used. The unseaworthiness issue in The Magdapur, 3 F.Supp. 971 (S.D.N.Y.1933), was decided solely on the theory that the vessel as a whole was adequately manned. This rationale cannot stand in the face of the development of the doctrine in the intervening years, illustrated by the holding in Mahnich.
I would reverse for new trial on the unseaworthiness issue.