Court Opinion

ID: 9448575
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:40:12.839292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:29.336469
License: Public Domain

HAYS, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result).
I concur in the result. However, it seems to me that, on the issue of unseaworthiness, it is necessary to say more than the majority opinion says.
The difficulty with the concept of unseaworthiness arises from the fact that while the authorities hold that there is liability without fault, there is no case which holds that there is absolute liability. The situation demands, then, that without regard to fault, we fix a point short of absolute liability. But logical coordinates for fixing a point, such as the time during which a particular condition continues to exist, are entirely lacking. Time is obviously irrelevant since notice to the shipowner is of consequence only if his liability is limited by fault. See Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc., 362 U.S. 539, 80 S.Ct. 926, 4 L.Ed. 941 (1960).
Perhaps the best that can be done is, like Judge Hand in Grillea v. United States, 232 F.2d 919 (2d Cir. 1956), to take as the starting point a condition of reasonable fitness for intended use, to consider this condition as impaired by the conduct or process which is the subject of litigation, and to call the resulting condition “unseaworthiness.” The conduct or process by which the fitness is changed to unfitness is not then to be classified as itself constituting unseaworthiness.
A ship is not unseaworthy because it has glass in a window which might be broken. The injuries of a seaman who negligently breaks such a glass are not the result of unseaworthiness, nor are the injuries of a seaman who is cut by the falling glass. But injury incurred in stepping on the broken glass does result from unseaworthiness.
The rule is far from satisfactory, but it has the virtue of being possible, though not easy, of application, and of having behind it the authority of a great judge. The situation itself does not permit the formulation of a really satisfying rule.
In the present case the defect arose “as a momentary step or phase in the progress of work on board” and “should be considered as an incident in a continuous course of operation” and not an unfitness of the ship. Grillea v. United States, supra, at p. 922.