Court Opinion

ID: 9446615
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:59:40.635986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:43.195128
License: Public Domain

MEDINA, Circuit Judge.
Aston Bartholomew, a citizen of the-British West Indies, was a seaman on board the Ulysses, a vessel owned and' operated by appellant, a Liberian corporation, and flying the flag of Liberia. On April 15, 1952, as the vessel was proceeding within the three-mile limit, and' hence in the territorial waters of the United States, Bartholomew was assaulted by a fellow member of the crew who-had previously attacked other seamen. The complaint alleged a claim based upon the Jones Act, another based upon alleged unseaworthiness under the Maritime Law and a third claim for maintenance and cure, also under the Maritime-Law. Over the objection of appellant. *439the trial judge held: that the circumstances disclosed by the evidence made the Jones Act applicable; that, although the trial was had on the civil side of the Court to a judge and jury, and not in admiralty, there was pendent jurisdiction over the maritime cause for unseaworthiness of the vessel; and he submitted both the Jones Act claim and the maritime cause for unseaworthiness to the jury, reserving the maintenance and cure maritime cause for decision by himself as a “judge in admiralty,” his determination to be based upon the evidence adduced at the trial and such further proofs as the parties might wish to offer later. The jury found for Bartholomew on each of the claims submitted to it, fixing the damages in the sum of $24,-600, or $25,000, less the $400 paid upon the signing of a release by Bartholomew which the jury disregarded as not binding on him. The maintenance and cure claim is held in abeyance pending the outcome of this appeal.
Appellant contends: that the court below improperly found the Jones Act applicable ; that in any event the maritime cause should not have been submitted to the jury; that it was error to refuse to give certain instructions to the jury as requested by appellant; and that the motion to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial should have been granted because the jurors allegedly compromised their views on the subject of damages. We shall discuss seriatim these points and the evidence and the portions of the record relevant to each.

Applicability of the Jones Act

Did the District Court err in holding that Bartholomew had a right to invoke the Jones Act against his employer, a Liberian corporation? In Lauritzen v. Larsen, 1953, 345 U.S. 571, at page 582, 73 S.Ct. 921, at page 928, 97 L.Ed. 1254, the Supreme Court tells us that the answer is to be found by “ascertaining and valuing points of contact between the transaction and the states or governments whose competing laws are involved,” and by “weighing * * * the significance of one or more connecting factors between the shipping transaction regulated and the national interest served by the assertion of authority,” such as the place of the wrongful act, the law of the flag, the allegiance or domicile of the claimant, the allegiance of the shipowner, the place of contract between the parties, the inaccessibility of the foreign forum and the law of the forum.
A study of the numerous adjudicated Jones Act cases reveals not only the vagueness inherent in the general and undefined direction in Lauritzen for the “valuing” and “weighing” of the various facts or groups of facts that are said to be “points of contact” between the transaction and the states whose competing laws are involved, but also a lack of any common principle of decision or method of approach to the problem. Sometimes the courts seem to be employing choice of law techniques, and not infrequently the result arrived at seems to be based on mere dialectic manipulation or guesswork. All this, however, is to be expected as new law develops in a new field. This substantial background of judicial consideration of a great variety of combinations of relevant factors in cases where application of the Jones Act is asserted on the one hand and denied on the other makes it possible for us to undertake a restatement of the method of approach and the principles to be applied.
To begin with, as pointed out in Lau-ritzen, 345 U.S. at page 578, 73 S.Ct. at page 926, “we are simply dealing with a problem of statutory construction.” For this reason traditional choice of law techniques may be more misleading than helpful.
In the second place, certain possible interpretations of the Jones Act have already been rejected, and their elimination simplifies the problem. For example, when the question was first presented it might have been held that in the enactment of the Jones Act the Congress intended to exercise the full measure of its power over the subject of the legis* lation, in which event any contact between the transaction and the United States would have been sufficient to war*440rant its application. But a contrary view prevailed. See The Paula, 2 Cir., 1937, 91 F.2d 1001, certiorari denied sub nom., Peters v. Lauritzen, 302 U.S. 750, 58 S.Ct. 270, 82 L.Ed. 580; O’Neill v. Cunard White Star, 2 Cir., 1947, 160 F.2d 446, certiorari denied 332 U.S. 773, 68 S.Ct. 56, 92 L.Ed. 358. Such inclusiveness was not read into the statute, since it was assumed that the Congress intended the Jones Act to be given a construction in consonance with international maritime law. This meant that not every contact, no matter how ephemeral or fortuitous it might be, would be deemed a basis for applying American law, that is to say the Jones Act. Instead, as commented on in Lauritzen (345 U.S. at page 582, 73 S.Ct. at page 928) “the necessity of mutual forbearance” to avoid international retaliation, and the desire to avoid changing and variant regulations aboard ship, have been stressed. Moreover, the courts might have so construed the Jones Act as to make some particular factor indispensable; but they did not. In other words, even if it appeared that a single special factor of obvious significance was lacking the Jones Act has been held to be applicable despite the absence of such a factor.
Thus the Jones Act has often been applied although the “flag of the ship” was foreign. E.g., Uravic v. F. Jarka Co., 1931, 282 U.S. 234, 51 S.Ct. 111, 75 L.Ed. 312; Gerradin v. United Fruit Co., 2 Cir., 1932, 60 F.2d 927, certiorari denied 287 U.S. 642, 53 S.Ct. 92, 77 L.Ed. 556; Gambera v. Bergoty, 2 Cir., 1942, 132 F.2d 414, certiorari denied 1943, 319 U.S. 742, 63 S.Ct. 1030, 87 L.Ed. 1699. Ownership of the vessel by American citizens was also lacking in the Uravic and Gambera cases.
That the tort need not occur in domestic waters was clearly shown in Panama R. Co. v. Johnson, 1923, 264 U.S. 375, 44 S.Ct. 391, 68 L.Ed. 748; Carroll v. United States, 2 Cir., 1943, 133 F.2d 690; Wenzler v. Robin Line S.S. Co., D.C.W.D. Wash.1921, 277 F. 812. In the Carroll case, supra, and in Torgersen v. Hutton, 2nd Dept. 1934, 243 App.Div. 31, 276 N.Y.S. 348, affirmed 1935, 267 N.Y. 535, 196 N.E. 566, certiorari denied, 1935, 296 U.S. 602, 56 S.Ct. 118, 80 L.Ed. 426, the seaman was neither a citizen nor domiciliary of the United States.
Other contacts such as the place of contract and the origin and destination of the vessel have probably never even been suggested as indispensable.
Nor can a “center of gravity” or “place of most vital connection” approach properly rationalize the decided cases.
Thus in the Uravic and Gambera cases though the flag of the ship and the owners of the vessel were foreign, the American citizenship or domicile of the seaman and the occurrence of the tort in the waters of the United States still led the courts to apply the Jones Act. Yet could anyone doubt that if the ship flew the American flag, without more, the Jones Act would apply? See Lauritzen v. Larsen, supra; O’Neill v. Cunard White Star, Ltd., 2 Cir., 1947, 160 F.2d 446, certiorari denied, 332 U.S. 773, 68 S.Ct. 56, 92 L.Ed. 358; Sonnesen v. Panama Transport Co., 1948, 298 N.Y. 262, 82 N.E.2d 569, certiorari denied, 1949, 337 U.S. 919, 69 S.Ct. 1157, 93 L.Ed. 1729. In this very case the “law of the flag” controlled the determination of the maritime claim. And in Carroll v. United States, 2 Cir., 1943, 133 F.2d 690, and Bobolakis v. Compania Panamena Maritima San Gerassimo, S. A.,D.C.S.D. N.Y.1958, 168 F.Supp. 236, American ownership alone was deemed sufficient to apply the Jones Act.1 It is apparent then that the contacts considered most vital in one case are not necessarily of controlling importance in another.
Hence it must be said that in a particular case something between minimal and preponderant contacts is necessary if the Jones Act is to be applied. Thus we conclude that the test is that “substantial” contacts are necessary. And while as indicated supra one contact *441such as the fact that the vessel flies the American flag may alone be sufficient, this is no more than to say that in such a case the contact is so obviously substantial as to render unnecessary a further probing into the facts.
Some of the advantages of this simple formula are that it states a rational method of ascertaining the congressional intent, and that in its application there is no occasion to consider and “weigh” the contacts that do not exist, nor to go through any process of balancing one set of facts that are present against another set of facts that are absent, without any sure guide as to how the balancing is to be done. Accordingly, the decisional process of arriving at a conclusion on the subject of the application of the Jones Act involves the ascertainment of the facts or groups of facts which constitute contacts between the transaction involved in the case and the United States, and then deciding whether or not they are substantial. Thus each factor is to be “weighed” and “evaluated” only to the end that, after each factor has been given consideration, a rational and satisfactory conclusion may be arrived at on the question of whether all the factors present add up to the necessary substantiality. Moreover, each factor, or contact, or group of facts must be tested in the light of the underlying objective, which is to effectuate the liberal purposes of the Jones Act. We shall now proceed to apply these principles to the case before us.
The basic facts may be briefly stated. The assault took place in the territorial waters of the United States. It matters not that the evidence was conflicting; the finding of the trial judge on this point is certainly not clearly erroneous.
Bartholomew was brought to the United States in 1950 by appellant and taken to Baltimore where he first signed on as a seaman on one of appellant’s vessels. Since then he has lived in Brooklyn, New York, where all his personal effects have been located; he made two voyages aboard vessels of appellant other than the Ulysses, worked for Macy’s and another concern for about a year, and maintained a bank account in Brooklyn. About three months after the assault, Bartholomew left the United States and proceeded to Puerto Rico, where he remained for two weeks for the sole purpose of obtaining a visa so that he could be eligible to apply for United States citizenship. Promptly upon his return to the United States he signed the usual declaration of intention.
Appellant is a Liberian corporation and the Ulysses flew the Liberian flag. But ail the stock of the Liberian corporation is held by a Panamanian corporation, and all the stock of the Panamanian corporation is owned by citizens of the United States. All the officers of appellant are American citizens, its principal place of business is in New York City, and it maintains an office in Liberia as a mere formality to comply with the Liberian statutory requirements.
The articles for the voyage on the Ulysses which was in progress at the time of the assault were signed by Bartholomew in Baltimore. There is no provision in these articles on the subject of what law is to govern in the event of an accident or other occurrence resulting in personal injuries or damage to a seaman. The voyage began in Baltimore and ended in Philadelphia.
We start with the fact that the assault occurred in the territorial waters of the United States. This is undoubtedly a factor of significance, see Lauritzen, 345 U.S. at page 583, 73 S.Ct. at page 928. We have no occasion here to determine whether or not the presence of this factor alone would suffice to make the Jones Act applicable.2
*442Although appellant contends otherwise, the practice in this type of ease of looking through the fagade of foreign registration and incorporation to the American ownership behind if is now well established. Gerradin v. United Fruit Co., 2 Cir., 1932, 60 F.2d 927, certiorari denied 287 U.S. 642, 53 S.Ct. 92, 77 L.Ed. 556; Carroll v. United States, 2 Cir., 1943, 133 F.2d 690; Zielinski v. Empresa Hondurena de Vapores, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1953, 113 F.Supp. 93; Torgersen v. Hutton, 2nd Dept. 1934, 243 App.Div. 31, 276 N.Y.S. 348, affirmed, 1935, 267 N.Y. 535, 196 N.E. 566, certiorari denied, 1935, 296 U.S. 602, 56 S.Ct. 118, 80 L.Ed. 426. This is essential unless the purposes of the Jones Act are to be frustrated by American shipowners intent upon evading their obligations under the law by the simple expedient of incorporating in a foreign country and registering their vessels under a foreign flag. See Lauritzen, 345 U.S. at page 587, 73 S.Ct. at page 930. In the case now before us appellant has taken the trouble to insert an additional nominal foreign corporation between the flag and the true beneficial ownership of the vessel. But we have little difficulty in brushing all this aside when considering the applicability vel non of the Jones Act. Complicating the mechanics of evasive schemes cannot serve to make them more effective. What we now do is not to disregard the corporate entity to impose liability on the stockholders, but rather to consider a foreign corporation as if it were an American corporation pursuant to the liberal policies of a regulatory act.3 See Zielinski v. Empresa Hondu-rena de Vapores, supra, 113 F.Supp. at page 95.
We also think the evidence overwhelmingly establishes that Bartholomew had sufficient presence and intent to be deemed a resident and domiciliary of the United States for the purpose of determining whether or not the Jones Act is applicable. Appellant, however, urges us to rule that the lack of a legal entry for immigration and naturalization purposes precludes us from considering Bartholomew as a “permanent inhabitant” (see Lauritzen, 345 U.S. at page 586, 73 S.Ct. at page 930) in connection with the problem of statutory construction now under consideration. Several cases are cited for this proposition but all of them arose in matters involving various provisions of the statutes affecting immigration and naturalization. E.g., United States ex rel. Bartsch v. Watkins, 2 Cir., 1949, 175 F.2d 245; Del Castillo v. Carr, 9 Cir., 1938, 100 F.2d 338; Taguchi v. Carr, 9 Cir., 1932, 62 F.2d 307; Hurst v. Nagle, 9 Cir., 1929, 30 F.2d 346, certiorari denied 279 U.S. 861, 49 S.Ct. 419, 73 L.Ed. 1001. That there is no basis for analogizing plaintiff’s status under strict immigration laws, designed to keep undesirable aliens out of this country, to his status under a broadly worded, liberally construed statute designed for the protection of seamen almost goes without saying. Barber v. Varleta, 9 Cir., 1952, 199 F.2d 419, another immigration ease, goes more to the point. There an alien seaman who had entered this country illegally, but who had lived here a number of years, was deemed to have “actually resided” here for the purposes of the Philippine Trade Act, 22 U.S.C.A. § 1251 et seq., and hence was found to be entitled to the benefits of a non-quota immigrant. Similarly, there can be little doubt that for Jones Act purposes plaintiff’s actual “resident” status is to be considered apart from the technical legality of such status.
That the factors or contacts just discussed are in the aggregate substan*443tial is clear beyond peradventure of doubt.4 No other conclusion is rationally .admissible in the light of the decided cases. Uravic v. F. Jarka Co., 1931, 282 U.S. 234, 51 S.Ct. 111, 75 L.Ed. 312; Gerradin v. United Fruit Co., 2 Cir., 1932, 60 F.2d 927, certiorari denied 287 U.S. 642, 53 S.Ct. 92, 77 L.Ed. 556; Gambera v. Bergoty, 2 Cir., 1942, 132 F.2d 414, certiorari denied, 1943, 319 U.S. 742, 63 S.Ct. 1030, 87 L.Ed. 1699; Carroll v. United States, 2 Cir., 1943, 133 F.2d 690; Zielinski v. Empresa Hondurena de Vapores, supra.
It is true that Lauritzen appears to stress the law of the flag as perhaps the most important factor, but we can perceive no indication whatever in Justice Jackson’s opinion of an intention to repudiate the earlier cases just cited. And yet little short of the rejection of all of them would permit us to hold the Jones Act inapplicable in the case before us. Indeed, the discussion in Lauritzen does no more than establish the insubstan-tiality of the contacts present in that case.
Moreover, this is not a matter resting in the discretion of the trial judge, as seems to have been thought to be the •case here. The facts either warrant the application of the Jones Act or they do not. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, once federal law is found applicable the court’s power to adjudicate must be exercised. While at times the impact of intricate questions of state law may require a federal court to stay its hand, Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 1943, 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424, and we need not attempt to catalogue other exceptional situations, it is clear that the District Court in the instant case had no discretionary power to refuse to adjudicate the case.

The Maritime Claims

Was it error to submit the maritime claim for unseaworthiness to the jury along with the Jones Act claim for negligence ?
Preliminarily, it may be well to clear up a possible misconstruction of our decision in Paduano v. Yamashita Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha, 1955, 221 F.2d 615, 619. There we held that the civil side of the District Court had no jurisdiction to try a maritime cause for unseaworthiness “in which the general maritime law is the sole substanive basis for awarding the relief claimed in the complaint.”5 But, as pointed out by Judge Waterman in Troupe v. Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company, 2 Cir., 1956, 234 F.2d 253, 257, Paduano has significance primarily with respect to the mode of trial. There is always subject matter jurisdiction in admiralty over an unseaworthiness claim. In Paduano we did not transfer the case to the admiralty docket of the District Court, rather than affirm the judgment of dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, simply because no such request was presented to us, and we gave no consideration to the making of such a transfer.
We are now required to decide the question left open in Troupe (see 234 F. 2d at page 258), whether, in a case where federal-question jurisdiction on the civil side of the District Court has attached in an action at law under the Jones Act, and a maritime cause for unseaworthiness is also alleged, arising out of the same occurrence, it is proper to try both *444causes together to a court and jury. In the typical ease and in the case before us the basic operative facts are almost but not quite identical; and as a matter of expediency and sound judicial administration it is plainly wasteful of the time of all concerned to require separate trials (see Troupe, at page 258). On the negligence phase of the case Bartholomew was required to prove that the shipowner knew or should have known of a propensity to violence on the part of the seaman who attacked him, whereas the unseaworthiness count depended upon no more than proof that the shipowner had not provided a vessel “sufficient, that is reasonably adequate, in materials, construction, equipment, stores, officers, men and outfit for the trade or service in which the vessel is employed.” Doucette v. Vincent, supra, 194 F.2d at pages 837, 838 and cases cited. Knowledge or lack of knowledge of the defect is not material, “the shipowner must at his peril furnish a seaworthy ship.” While in the present case the Liberian maritime law was held applicable, the proof showed that the Liberian maritime law and the American maritime law on the point were the same. The thrust of all this with respect to the precise question now under discussion is that separate trials involve the possibility of an application of the doctrines of res judicata or collateral estoppel. Such procedural entanglements are, of course, to be avoided in the interest of justice. Thus while Baltimore S.S. Co. v. Phillips, 1927, 274 U.S. 316, 47 S.Ct. 600, 71 L.Ed. 1069, seems to preclude recovery under the Jones Act if the unseaworthiness issues have been previously decided adversely to the seaman,6 the converse may not be true,7 because the seaman might have lost his Jones Act recovery because the trier of the facts decided he had not es*445tablished the requisite notice to the shipowner of the defect or omission.
As we have concluded that it was proper to try both claims to a jury, it would perhaps suffice to say that we are content to follow the courts that have already given their approval to this procedure.8 But the question cuts deep; it has not yet been passed upon by the Supreme Court; and we prefer briefly to state the reasons we think support the view we have taken of the matter. Our analysis of the series of theoretical and practical problems involved may serve somewhat to clarify the general subject of the method of trial in a federal District Court of the composite rights of an injured seaman, including his claims under the Jones Act for negligence, under the general maritime law for unseaworthiness and, also under the general maritime law, for maintenance and cure, a subject that has been almost endlessly discussed in the opinions of the courts and by text writers and commentators.9
Counsel in the case before ns have articulated their argument on the subject of the method of trial in terms of pendent jurisdiction as outlined in Hurn v. Oursler, 1933, 289 U.S. 238, 53 S.Ct. 586, 77 L.Ed. 1148. But Hurn v. Ours-ler, was concerned with the distribution of judicial power between the state and federal courts; the rule was formulated solely for the purpose of preventing piecemeal litigation; and the solution of the type of problem there presented was stated to depend upon the distinction between separate causes of action on the one hand, and separate grounds for a single cause of action, on the other.10 But in the case before us there is undoubted jurisdiction in the District Court of the entire controversy between the parties. Jurisdiction of no single one of the claims is ancillary to jurisdiction over either or both of the others. On the other hand, as we found in Paduano, the competence of the District Court is divided, for purposes of the mode of trial and for other purposes, into compartments having separate civil, criminal and admiralty powers or competence. But as in the merger of law and equity, all these powers reside in a single District Court. To meet the practical necessities of the problem now before us we find no insuperable difficulty in carrying over the pendent doctrine to this analogous field, by holding that the Jones Act claim carries along with it the maritime claim of unseaworthiness for purposes of a trial, in the civil part of the District Court,11 of all the issues arising out of both such claims.
The two claims may and usually are set forth as separate counts in a single pleading, or in separate pleadings in sep*446arate proceedings, and as a complaint in a civil action and a libel in rem or in per-sonam, or both, in admiralty. Thus the problem we seek to solve involves indirectly calendar, pre-trial and consolidation procedures.
Assuming that the two counts are in a single pleading, as here, or, if in separate proceedings, have been consolidated, that plaintiff has demanded a jury trial, and that the case is called for trial in the civil part of the District Court, it may seem possible to dispose of the negligence and unseaworthiness claims together, with the judge leaving the negligence claim issues of fact to the jury, while at the •same time reserving the unseaworthiness claim issues for determination by himself, as Judge Conger did in the case before us with respect to the issues arising out of the claim for maintenance and cure. But this is an unrealistic and purely theoretical solution.
Thus, the judge and jury may have different views on questions of the credibility of witnesses, each may draw different inferences from certain established groups of facts or apply circumstantial evidence in different ways. The •application of the doctrine of res judi-cata, already referred to, may cause further complications and injustice. Moreover, needless interruptions and disputes may well arise over what evidence the jury should or should not hear. But a single trial of the negligence and unseaworthiness claims together to a judge and jury is subject to none of the disadvantages just described and the practical advantages of doing so are perfectly manifest, as the central core of disputed facts involved in the two claims is identical.
These considerations demonstrate, we think, some of the practical advantages of trying at least the negligence and unseaworthiness claims together to the same trier of the facts. But, once these advantages are recognized and it becomes settled procedure to try the two together to a jury, other advantages follow as a matter of course for the future by reducing calendar delays and congestion, which will be avoided by the greater number and certainty of the consolidations that are bound to result from the ruling we are now making.
We wish to make plain, however, what undue emphasis on the Hurn v. Oursler test may obscure, namely, that the fundamental desideratum is that all litigation should be decided in the manner most conducive to the just, speedy and inexpensive disposition of the business of the courts untrammelled by unnecessary technicalities and possible dilatory maneuvers. Persistent and continued efforts to attain this objective constitute one of the most admirable features of modern judicial federal practice, which has supplanted a cumbersome and inflexible procedure that inevitably led to technical and dilatory moves by litigants, while at the same time adding to the already excessive cost of litigation and to unnecessary appeals.
In using the doctrine of pendency we are, aware that the term is somewhat misleading in that it implies that the unseaworthiness count is a detachable unit hanging or dependent on the Jones Act claim. In reality we find the doctrine applicable because of the fundamental singleness of the underlying claim, the fact that the Jones Act claim and the maritime claim of unseaworthiness are so intertwined factually that they cannot as a matter of practice be separated into pieces.12 While the legal theories differ somewhat, from the standpoint of *447the parties the facts all exist as a single unit.
Thus, and for the reasons just stated, we conclude that the District Court on its civil side, in a case in which plaintiff seaman was entitled as of right to a jury trial of his Jones Act claim for negligence, had pendent “jurisdiction” of his maritime claim for unseaworthiness arising out of the same occurrence or transaction, and that both were properly submitted to the jury for a common law adjudication. We express no conclusion on the validity of this use of the pendent doctrine when sought to be applied to other related claims in other areas of the law.
Nor does our present holding conflict with what was decided by us in Paduano, supra. In that case we said, 221 F.2d at page 619:
“In view of the persistence of this legislative attitude and in the absence of any indication that there are situations in which it has not prevailed, we are constrained to conclude that the Congress, in enacting Section 1331 and its predecessor provisions, intended to exclude from its scope, cases such as the one now before us, in which the general maritime law is the sole substantive basis for awarding the relief claimed in the complaint.”
Had we held otherwise, in view of the historical background developed in the opinion, we would not only have opened the door to a whittling away of the traditional method of trial to a judge in admiralty in maritime cases, but we would, we think, have wrongly decided the case. Here we do not have a claim based upon the general maritime law as “the sole substantive basis for awarding the relief claimed in the complaint.” On the contrary, we are now dealing with a Jones Act negligence claim with respect to which the seaman, by the explicit terms of the statute, is entitled as of right to a jury trial; and we now do no more than hold that in this particular situation the Jones Act claim as alleged is so factually intertwined with the maritime claim as to carry it along into the civil side of the District Court for trial with the Jones Act claim to a court and jury.
Our discussion of this interesting problem would not be complete if we did not mention another possible solution. It cannot be, we think, that a United States District Court lacks power to do what Judge Conger did here. We have applied the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction because this seemed the theory best adapted to the preservation of the traditional method of a trial to a judge in maritime cases in admiralty. But American admiralty courts have from the earliest times since the founding of the Republic exercised their inherent powers to adjust American general substantive maritime law to new conditions by a process of development and elaboration, when the matters involved were not affected by legislation by the Congress. Perhaps the time will come when these same admiralty courts may decide to develop or elaborate upon the applicable adjective law in admiralty by adopting the common law trial to a jury in some very limited class of maritime matters. We hesitate to take such a bold step in the case before us, as we think the theory we have adopted is a rational means of deciding the case before us and the one least likely to affect adversely the general structure of the admiralty jurisdiction that has so well served its purpose over the years.
All that remains on this phase of the case is the necessity for clear and explicit instructions to the jury, and that necessity exists in every case of trial to a court and jury. In this case not only were the instructions unexceptionable, but Judge Conger took the additional precaution of formulating a series of questions to be answered by the jury with reference to each of the two separate claims. This is a desirable procedure, especially in this type of case; and requiring answers to such separate interrogatories greatly facilitates the de-cisional process in a court of review.

*448
The Instructions to the Jury

Appellant asserts that it was error for the trial judge to refuse to instruct the jury, as requested:
“That a seaman who refuses to undergo hospitalization pursuant to the advice of physicians forfeits any right which he may have to any damages for injuries or any prolongation thereof which such refusal brings about.”
But the judge was clearly right in refusing this request. It is far from clear that the seaman left the Kings County Hospital without any doctor’s permission to do so. Indeed, he seems to have left because he “disliked the place.” Moreover, he left in the care of another doctor and thereafter received substantial medical treatment. He seems never to have manifested any inclination to refuse medical assistance.

The Alleged Compromise Verdict

As above stated, the trial judge submitted a series of questions on each of the two separate claims, to be answered by the jury to aid them in determining whether the seaman was to recover damages from the shipowner, and, if so, the amount of such recovery. They related to the validity of the release, the issues of negligence and unseaworthiness, proximate cause, contributory negligence and the application of the doctrine of comparative negligence. When the jury returned to the courtroom to announce its verdict it appeared that they had not answered the questions formulated by the judge. One juror stated that the jury thought it not necessary to answer the questions, another said the questions had in fact been answered but the answers had not been filled in. The judge then sent the jury back to the jury room with clear and explicit instructions to answer the questions. Five minutes later the jury returned; they had filled in the answers and had reached the conclusion that the seaman should recover $24,600 from the shipowner. When polled each juror gave assent to the verdict thus rendered.
On the following morning the trial judge inadvertently opened the door leading to the room containing the jury pool, and saw several of the jurors there who had sat on the Bartholomew case. After a brief irrelevant exchange one juror asked, “What did you think of the verdict?” Without thinking, the trial judge replied, “Well, it might have been more.” The juror then said, “Yes, that’s right, we couldn’t agree.” “That’s why we didn’t answer the questions.” The trial judge quickly withdrew, explaining that he did not wish to discuss the case.
 The motion to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial was properly denied. Under the circumstances it is immaterial that the jurors did not answer the questions before returning to the courtroom to announce their verdict; and it is settled law that statements made by jurors and not part of the trial record cannot be used to impeach their verdict. Nothing on the face of the trial record gives the slightest support to the claim that the verdict was the result of a compromise. Maher v. Isthmian Steamship Co., 2 Cir., 1958, 253 F.2d 414; McDonald v. Pless, 1915, 238 U.S. 264, 35 S.Ct. 783, 59 L.Ed. 1300; Rotondo v. Isthmian Steamship Co., 2 Cir., 1957, 243 F.2d 581, certiorari denied 355 U.S. 834, 78 S.Ct. 53, 2 L.Ed.2d 45.
Affirmed.

. But see Footnote 4 infra.

. Several cases hove found the Jones Act inapplicable under such circumstances. E. g., The Paula, 2 Cir., 1937, 91 P.2d 1001, certiorari denied sub nom., Peters v. Lauritzen, 302 U.S. 750, 58 S.Ct. 270, 82 L.Ed. 580; Hansen v. A.S.D., S.S. V. Endborg, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1957, 155 F.Supp. 387; Nakken v. Eearnley & Eger, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1955, 137 F.Supp. 288; Samad v. The Etivebank, D.C.E.D.Va.1955, 134 *442F.Supp. 530. In Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1956, 142 F.Supp. 570, affirmed Per Curiam, 2 Cir., 1957, 244 F.2d 409, this issue was one of the numerous points in contention. The Supreme Court has granted certiorari, 355 U.S. 807, 78 S.Ct. 55, 2 L.Ed.2d 27.

. It should be unnecessary to add that in treating the foreign incorporation of appellant as if American for Jones Act purpose, we do not pass upon, nor have we considered, the wholly separate question of similar treatment for purposes of jurisdiction under 28 U.S.O. § 1332 (a) (21.

. Indeed, cases such as Mpronmeriotis v. Seacrest Shipping Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1957, 149 F.Supp. 265, and Argyros v. Polar Compania De Navegacion, Ltda., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1956, 146 F.Supp. 624, holding American ownership alone insufficient to warrant application o£ the Jones Act must be considered of doubtful validity. In Mpronmeriotis and Hansen v. A.S.D., S.S. V. Endborg, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1957, 155 F.Supp. 387; Nakken v. Fearnley & Eger, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1955, 137 F.Supp. 288; Rankin v. Atlantic Maritime Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1953, 117 F.Supp. 253, the courts apparently adopted the unsatisfactory procedure of balancing or comparing present with absent factors.

. Paduano, supra, 221 F.2d at page 619. Accord Jordine v. Walling, 3 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 662; Jenkins v. Roderick, D.C.D.Mass.1957, 156 F.Supp. 299 302. Contra, Doucette v. Vincent, 1 Cir., 1952, 194 F.2d 834.

. Recovery by the seaman on either claim is deemed mutually exclusive. Pacific S.S. Co. v. Peterson, 1928, 278 U.S. 130, 138, 49 S.Ot. 75, 73 L.Ed. 220.

. The Supreme Court recently in McAllister v. Magnolia Petroleum Co., 1958, 357 U.S. 221, 78 S.Ct. 1201, 2 L.Ed.2d 1272, appears to have assumed that the doctrine of res judicata worked both ways. In that case a state was prohibited from applying its shorter statute of limitations to a maritime .claim for -unseaworthiness on the ground that under Baltimore S.S. Oo. v. Phillips, supra, the seaman was compelled to bring both causes of action simultaneously or lose one via res judicata. Hence, it was reasoned, shortening the time limitation on the maritime facet of the case adversely affected the three-year period given to seamen by the Congress on their Jones Act claims. However, although all three opinions seemed to regard the point as settled, it was not necessary to find a complete interchangeability of claims for res judicata purposes. To demonstrate the adverse effects of applying the state statute of limitations, it would have been sufficient to reaffirm Baltimore S.S. Co. v. Phillips, supra, and hold that a decision on the maritime claim barred the Jones Act claim. And see Troupe v. Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company, 2 Cir., 1956, 234 F.2d 253, and Balado v. Lykes Brothers S.S. Co., 2 Cir., 1950, 179 F.2d 943, where despite jury verdicts for defendants on the Jones Act claim, tbe cases were remanded for more clear-cut verdicts on unseaworthiness. See also the comment by Judge Wyzanski .in Jenkins v. Roderick, D.C.D. Mass.1957, 156 F.Supp. 299, 300.
It is all very well to say that the advantages of joining Jones Act, unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure claims in the same proceeding is so manifest “that a seaman will rarely forego his right to sue for all three,” McAllister, supra, 357 U.S. at page 224, 78 S.Ct. at page 1204; the fact remains, however, that neither the seamen nor their lawyers are always aware of the substantive and procedural rules affecting the rights of the injured seamen, and it is not improbable that suits will hereafter be brought in state or federal courts involving the assertion of only one of the three claims or as many combinations of each of the three as are mathematically possible. Indeed, the number of motions by shipowners for consolidation appearing in the reports of decisions in this field would seem to indicate that at least in some cases the seaman has sought to take two bites of the apple by bringing the action involving the Jones Act claim first, and then later filing his libel in admiralty asserting the maritime claim for unseaworthiness, in the hope that the Jones Act claim could be tried first, in which event, if the seaman lost, he might still prevail on his claim for unseaworthiness.

. See Troupe v. Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company, supra, 234 F.2d at page 258; Doucette v. Vincent, 1 Cir., 1952, 194 F.2d 834, 840, note 5; Jordine v. Walling, 3 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 662, 670; Jenkins v. Roderick, D.C.D.Mass.1957, 156 F.Supp. 299; Andersen v. McAllister Lighterage Line, Inc., D.C.E.D.N.Y.1957, 157 F.Supp. 384; cf. McCarthy v. American Eastern Corp., 3 Cir., 1949, 175 F.2d 724, certiorari denied 338 U.S. 868, 70 S.Ct. 144, 94 L.Ed. 532; McAfoos v. Canadian Pacific Steamships, Ltd., 2 Cir., 1957, 243 F.2d 270, certiorari denied 355 U.S. 823, 78 S.Ct. 32, 2 L.Ed.2d 39. See also Balado v. Lykes Bros. S.S. Co., 2 Cir., 1950, 179 F.2d 943 (both questions submitted to jury without discussion).

. See cases cited Footnote 8, supra and Gonzales v. United Fruit Co., 2 Cir., 1951, 193 F.2d 479, 480, note 1; Mullen v. Fitz Simons & Connell Dredge & Dock Co., 7 Cir., 1948, 172 F.2d 601, certiorari denied, 1949, 337 U.S. 959, 69 S.Ct. 1534, 93 L.Ed. 1758; Lindquist v. Dilkes, 3 Cir., 1942, 127 F.2d 21; Nolan v. General Seafoods Corp., 1. Cir., 1940, 112 F.2d 515; Stevens v. R. O’Brien & Co., 1 Cir., 1933, 62 F.2d 632. See also 5 Moore, Federal Practice p. 278 (1951) and Supp. p. 17 (1957); 71 Harv.L.Rev. 1359 (1958); 19 G.Wash.L.Rev. 453 (1951); Comment, 57 Yale L.J. 243 (1947).

. See Hart and Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System, pp. 802-809 (1953).

. The Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, reads:
“Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an *446action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in eases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply; * * ”.

. Cf. Pate v. Standard Dredging Corp., 5 Cir., 1952, 193 F.2d 498, 502, where for purposes of the federal removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1441(c), a claim of “unseawortbiness” was not a “separate and independent claim or cause of action” so as to permit removal of a Jones Act claim which cannot by itself ba removed from the state court.