Court Opinion

ID: 9459536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:23:37.046588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:12.655374
License: Public Domain

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
Although, as the majority points out, the 1972 amendments to the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Act greatly diminish the importance of this case as precedent, our duty to decide it correctly is not diminished. With deference, I must disagree with one important aspect of the majority’s reasoning and with the result it reaches.
First, in considering the question of the stevedore’s breach of warranty of workmanlike performance, I believe we *435should follow the per se rule of the Second, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits that the longshoreman’s negligence constitutes a breach of warranty of workmanlike performance as a matter of law. This rule accords better with the precedents and with logic than the majority’s factor approach. If the longshoreman’s negligence is imputed to the stevedore — and it is imputed in this Circuit as in others, see United States Lines Company v. Williams, 5th Cir. 1966, 365 F.2d 332, 334 n. 4—then it is difficult to understand how the stevedore, having negligently contributed to the cause of an accident through the acts of the longshoreman, might nevertheless avoid breaching its warranty of workmanlike performance, the essence of which is to perform its work “properly and safely.” Ryan Stevedoring Company v. Pan-Atlantic S/S Corporation, 1955, 350 U.S. 124, 133, 76 S.Ct. 232, 237, 100 L.Ed. 133. Lusich v. Bloomfield Steamship Company, 5th Cir. 1966, 355 F.2d 770 and United States Lines Company v. Williams, supra, upon which the majority rely, do contain language supporting the factor approach, but I do not read them to establish that approach in this Circuit. Those cases reversed because the trier of fact had failed to consider the longshoreman’s negligence at all on the question of breach of warranty, but did not limit the scope of that consideration to that due a “factor” or otherwise preclude the per se approach. In this ease, of course, the per se approach yields the same results as the factor approach of the majority: the warranty of workmanlike performance was breached.
On the question whether the district court clearly erred in finding the shipowner was guilty of such conduct as to preclude indemnity I disagree with the majority’s result. The only fault of the shipowner was furnishing a ship with a twenty-six and one-half inch step — a condition found to be unseaworthy. The district court concluded, “Although the step did constitute an unseaworthy condition, it was not particularly formidable to those who follow an active trade and its hazards might easily have been avoided by the use of ordinary care.” The defectiveness of the step contributed only five percent to the cause of the accident. In these circumstances, when the shipowner’s conduct is weighed against the stevedore’s breach of warranty of workmanlike performance, Waterman S/S Corporation v. David, 5th Cir. 1966, 353 F.2d 660, I do not believe the shipowner’s conduct could reasonably be found sufficient to preclude recovery to which it would otherwise be entitled. Its conduct did not “prevent or seriously handicap the stevedore in his ability to do a workmanlike job.” Albanese v. N. V. Nederl. Amerik Stoomv. Maats., 2nd Cir. 1965, 346 F.2d 481; see also Corbin on Contracts § 1264.
Accordingly, I would, reverse the judgment below denying indemnity.
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING AND PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
PER CURIAM:
The Petition for Rehearing is denied and no member of this panel nor Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc, (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12) the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is denied.