Court Opinion

ID: 9486089
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:37:30.646742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:31.315430
License: Public Domain

RYMER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur because the reasoning of 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), which holds that a vessel has the duty to protect longshoremen against concealed conditions created by a foreign stevedore, which the vessel could have corrected or warned of, leads inexorably to the conclusion that the vessel has a duty of care with respect to cargo conditions whether the dangers are concealed or not. I write separately to note that until now, the turn over duty has focused on the character of the ship and its equipment, not on the condition of the cargo. See, e.g., Ludwig v. Pan Ocean Shipping Co., 941 F.2d 849 (9th Cir.1991) (duty to have ship and its equipment safe for stevedore operations); Taylor v. Moram Agencies, 739 F.2d 1384 (9th Cir.1984) (vessel not liable for hazards which develop as a result of cargo operations). By the same token, the duty to warn has existed only with regard to hidden or concealed dangers. Scindia Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. v. De Los Santos, 451 U.S. 156, 101 S.Ct. 1614, 68 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981); Turner, 651 F.2d at 1304. By imposing a turn over duty of care to protect stevedores from poor cargo conditions, we are exposing the shipowner to liability equally for lack of reasonable care as to the vessel or the vessel’s equipment, and as to the condition of the cargo (at least when stowed, by a foreign stevedore). It is unclear that this squares with the restrictive rules of liability of shipowners to stevedores envisioned by the 1972 Amendments to the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 905(b), or with the scope of a shipowner’s duties recognized in De Los Santos. In any case, should Turner have led us astray, either the Congress or the Court can set us straight.1

. Our decision aligns the Ninth Circuit with the Fifth, but the Third Circuit is to- the contrary. Compare Lemon v. Bank Lines, Ltd., 656 F.2d 110 (5th Cir. Sept. 1981) (vessel liable for open and obvious defect in cargo storage) with Derr v. Kawasaki Kisen K.K., 835 F.2d 490 (3d Cir.1987) (vessel not responsible for open and obvious cargo storage hazards created by foreign stevedore), cert., denied, 486 U.S. 1007, 108 S.Ct. 1733, 100 L.Ed.2d 196 (1988).