Agnew v. American President Lines, Ltd.

177 F.2d 107, 1949 A.M.C. 1007, 1949 U.S. App. LEXIS 3762
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 5, 1949
DocketNo. 11943
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 177 F.2d 107 (Agnew v. American President Lines, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Agnew v. American President Lines, Ltd., 177 F.2d 107, 1949 A.M.C. 1007, 1949 U.S. App. LEXIS 3762 (9th Cir. 1949).

Opinion

DENMAN, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree denying to appellants, unlicensed sailors on the Steamer President Harrison, an emergency wage increase and maintenance while interned by the Japanese for some three years and nine months, until August 15, 1945, after the Japanese capture, .on December 8, 1941, of the steamer in the waters off the [108]*108coast of China, they having traveled on her from San Francisco to Manila and from there to the Chinese waters.1 The court awarded the emergency wage increase only for the period the sailors were carried on a different vessel as repatriates from their place of internment, east bound on the Pacific Ocean to the 180th Meridian.

The district court in denying the emergency wage increase during internment held that under the shipping articles the sailors were entitled to the war bonus only when on some ship navigating on the voyages easterly and westerly in the Pacific west of the 180th Meridian. The appellants contend here that the district court erred (A) in refusing to hold the war bonus is due for the period of their internment in Japan and (B) in refusing them maintenance during internment.

A. The War Bonus to the Unlicensed Sailors While Interned by the Japanese.

In construing the shipping articles, it is not questioned that the following are controlling: First, that Sec. 676, 46 U.S.C., 46 U.S.C.A. § 676, provides that the shipping articles “shall be deemed to contain all the conditions of contract with the crew as to their services, pay, voyage and all other things.” Second, because the riders were prepared by, they must be construed most strongly against appellees, and third, that the riders’ provisions must be interpreted liberally in favor of the seamen in line with the traditional solicitude of the courts of admiralty for their physical and economic well being. Garrett v. Moore-McCormack Co., 317 U.S. 239, 63 S.Ct. 246, 87 L.Ed. 239.

The shipping articles’ agreement is contained in a rider thereto of which the parties stipulate that the words “emergency wage increase” are synonymous with “war bonus.” The rider reads:

“Rider for Passenger & Freight Vessels in the Trans-Pacific & Straits Settlements Service

“1. The American President Lines agree to pay an [war] emergency wage increase to the unlicensed crew of the SS PRESIDENT HARRISON, Voyage 55.

“2. The monthly basic wages as shown in the following agreements between the Pacific American Shipowners Association and the Unions are to be used as the basis for payment of this increase:

Sailors’ Union o£ the Pacific Effective October 10, 1939
Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association “ October 1, 1941
Marine Cooks and Stewards’ Assn of the Pacific Coast '* July 5, 1940

“3. To all employees entitled to receive basic wages of $120.00 per month or less under said Agreement, the sum of $80.00 per month.

“4. To all employees entitled to receive in excess of $120.00 per month under said agreement, 66%% of such basic monthly wage.

“5. This emergency wage increase to apply from the crossing of the 180th Meridian westbound until crossing the 180th Meridian eastbound.

“6. In the event the vessel is interned, destroyed or abandoned as a result of war operations and is unable to continue her voyage, basic wages and emergency wages specified in the collective bargaining agreement between the Pacific American Shipowners Association and the Unions shown above shall be paid to the date the members of the crew arrive in a Continental United States port and the employees shall be repatriated to a , Continental United States port. War bonuses at the rates specified in paragraphs 3 and 4 hereof shall be paid while employees are in the war zones defined herein.”

The first disputed question here is whether, the vessel having been interned within paragraph 6, the sailors there detained were within “the war zones defined herein” of its last sentence, at the time of the capture and thereafter during their internment.

[109]*109The district court reached its conclusion denying the war bonus during internment by holding that no war zone of the last sentence in paragraph 6 was “defined” in the rider, and a supplemental war zone rules agreement, and hence it could determine the sailors’ contract with the owner by evidence dehors the rider and agreement.

We do not agree. We think that the sailor employees on a voyage from Manila to the China Coast (west of the 180th Meridian) were, when interned in Shanghai within the war zone defined in the rider. It is a reasonable interpretation of paragraph 6 that it provides that the basic wage and emergency wage, (but not the war bonus or emergency wage increase,) are to be paid while the employees are both west and east of the 180th Meridian, while the additional war bonus is to be paid only while west of that Meridian. We think that paragraph 5 should be construed, in connection with paragraphs 3, 4 and 6, as reading:

“5. This [war bonus or] emergency wage increase [payable to the sailors under paragraphs 3 and 4] to apply [in the war zone existing] from the [sailors’] crossing of the 180th Meridian westbound until [their] crossing the -180th Meridian eastbound."

It is a rational interpretation, in favor of the sailors, of paragraph 5 of the rider, drawn by the shipowner, to say that the area in which a war bonus is to be paid is a zvar zone. Such an interpretation gives effect to the rider’s provisions instead of making nugatory the last sentence of paragraph 6 by holding that no war zone is described in the rider.

That the sailors were captured and held in a war zone is further shown in the supplemental agreement with the sailors clarifying paragraph 5 of the rider, as follows:

“1. The following war bonus rules shall govern the parties hereto—

“(a) There shall be five war zones; namely:

******

“III. Trans-Pacific voyages to Japan, Philippine Islands, China, Indo-China, East Indies, Malayan Peninsula. (After crossing the 180th Meridian westbound, until recrossing the same Meridian eastbound.)”

It is a rational interpretation to regard the men, the vessel and the voyage as not the zvar zone. Rather each of the three is in the war zone. The men remained employees in the zone during the internment, expressly a contemplated incident of the employment contract.

The war bonus rules concern the employees who are to receive it. Hence 1(a) III, construed in connection with paragraph 6 of the rider, rationally should be read as

“III. [For employees on] Trans-Pacific voyages to Japan, Philippine Islands, China, Indo-China, East Indies, Malayan Peninsula. [the war zone is] (After [the employees] crossing the 180th Meridian westbound, until [their] recrossing the same Meridian eastbound.)”

Appellees assert that we have held to the contrary in Steeves v. American Mail Line, 9 Cir., 154 F.2d 24. There is no merit in this assertion. The rider there was so essentially different that we thought that case inapplicable.

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Bluebook (online)
177 F.2d 107, 1949 A.M.C. 1007, 1949 U.S. App. LEXIS 3762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/agnew-v-american-president-lines-ltd-ca9-1949.