Henderson v. Arundel Corporation

262 F. Supp. 152, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8048
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedDecember 22, 1966
Docket4777, 4944, 4943, 4945
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 262 F. Supp. 152 (Henderson v. Arundel Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henderson v. Arundel Corporation, 262 F. Supp. 152, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8048 (D. Md. 1966).

Opinion

WATKINS, District Judge.

In the above entitled four companion cases thirty-five libellants, members of the crew of the Dredge Lyon owned, operated and controlled by respondent The Arundel Corporation (Arundel), by libels in personam seek to recover from Arundel and from Elder Dempster, a foreign corporation which owned, operated or controlled the M/S PRAHSU, damages for loss of approximately six weeks’ wages, maintenance (subsistence) and overtime from February 1, 1963 in the aggregate sum of $70,000.00, each libellant claiming damages individually in the sum of $2,000.00. This is libellant Henderson’s third attempt to state a cause of action against the said respondents. His first and original libel was dismissed as to Elder Dempster — with leave to file an amended libel — for the reasons set forth by this Court in Henderson v. Arundel Corporation, D.C.D.Md.1965, 241 F.Supp. 812. His first amended libel was dismissed as to both respondents — with leave to file a second amended libel — for the reasons stated in an oral opinion of this Court rendered on December 3, 1965, in Admiralty No. 4777. Libellant Henderson then filed a second amended libel in Admiralty No. 4777 against his employer Arundel only, dropping Elder Dempster as a respondent in that proceeding. Simultaneously he filed a separate libel against Elder Dempster (Admiralty No. 4944). On the same day libellant Henderson’s fellow crew members instituted two actions, one against Arundel (Admiralty No. 4943) and one against Elder Dempster (Admiralty No. 4945), each of which cases for the purposes of the instant proceedings set out their respective causes of action in allegations identical to those made in the Henderson libels. Arundel has filed exceptions to the two libels pending against it, as has Elder Dempster. Accordingly, a consideration of, and disposition of, the Henderson libels will be controlling as to, and dispositive of, the libels of Henderson’s fellow crew members.

Henderson asserts two grounds for recovery against Arundel. His cause of action set out in count one is based upon the allegations that on January 28, 1963 while Henderson was engaged in employment for Arundel as a mate on board the Dredge Lyon, through the negligence of Arundel the M/S PRAHSU and the dredge collided, causing severe damage to the dredge, necessitating the dredge to be idle and her crew, including libellant Henderson, to be laid off until such time as necessary repairs could be made; that at the time of the collision libellant Henderson was employed by Arundel pursuant to, and for the duration of, a contract which Arundel had with the United States Corps of Engineers for the dredging of the channel of the Baltimore Harbor; and that “solely as a result of the collision aforesaid and [his] subsequent wrongful lay off and/or discharge” the libellant was caused to lose wages, subsistence and overtime to the estimated amount of $2,000.00.

Arundel has filed exceptions to this count of the libel on the grounds that it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be given; that it does not set forth a legal or equitable cause of action for wages, maintenance and overtime which would have normally accrued to libellant; that it discloses no proximate causal connection between the alleged acts of negligence of Arundel and the losses and damages claimed by its employee; that it fails to allege any duty owed by Arundel to its employee with respect to the items of damage claimed, which duty was breached by Arundel’s alleged negligence; and that the averment that the libellant was wrongfully laid off and/or discharged is made without any factual allegations in support thereof so as to inform Arundel of the issues raised and so *154 as to enable Arundel to answer the averment. In its brief, Arundel takes the position that there was no duty owed by Arundel to Henderson or to any of its employees on the Dredge Lyon to use any degree of care with respect to the preservation of their employment, and, if through negligence on Arundel’s part (whether resulting in a collision or a negligent failure to keep the dredge in a seaworthy condition) the dredge had to be laid up for repairs and the employment of the crew suspended or terminated during such period of repair, no claim for lost future, prospective wages could be successfully asserted absent a breach of some condition of the employee’s contract of employment. Basically, Arundel contends that any suit brought against it to recover loss of wages must be a cause of action sounding in contract; that it has no, and cannot have any, tort liability to libellant since he claims to have suffered neither personal injuries nor property damage as a result of the collision in question, and that, as Count I of the libel alleges negligent conduct on the part of Arundel causing the collision, libellant’s cause of action sounds in tort and he has accordingly failed to state a cause of action against Arundel.

Libellant has clearly alleged that he was employed by Arundel on board the Dredge Lyon for a definite period of time, that is “for the duration of a contract which the Arundel Corporation did receive from the United States Corps of Engineers for the dredging of the channel of the Baltimore Harbor”. He has further clearly alleged that the performance by Arundel of this contractual undertaking was rendered impossible when the dredge was laid up for repairs and that the impossibility of performance was directly attributable to negligent conduct on the part of Arundel which caused the collision forcing the dredge to be laid up for repairs. Thus, libellant has clearly alleged a breach of his contract of employment by Arundel as it is only fortuitous impossibility of performance that excuses a promisor from liability, liability being imposed in those cases where impossibility of performance is due to the fault of the promisor (Williston on Contracts, Revised Edition, Volume 6, sections 1935 and 1959).

In addition to alleging a right to recovery under the general and well established principles applicable in the field of contract law, libellant has in Count I of his libel made allegations which are /sufficient to bring him within the ambit of a line of cases apparently recognizing the right of a seaman to recover wages to the end of a voyage even though the service of the seaman terminates prior to the period contemplated in the employment contract, where the premature termination is occasioned by the loss or wreck of the vessel and the loss or wreck of the vessel in turn was caused by the negligence of the master. Historically, “the wages of seamen were dependent upon the freight earnings, and from this fact came the phrase ‘freight is the mother of wages, and the safety of the ship the mother of freight’ ” (Norris on the Law of Seamen, 2nd Edition, Volume 1, section 303, page 340). The Maritime Law has recognized in the case of shipwreck an exception to the general rule that no wages are due where no freight is earned. The courts in the past have belabored the point as to whether the compensation allowed in the cases of shipwreck is to be deemed wages earned under the contract of employment or whether the compensation is to be regarded as a salvage compensation, the weight of authority favoring the former view. (Drew v. Pope, D. C.D.Cal.1871, Fed.Cas.No. 4,080). Which view was taken was not, even in the past, of practical significance, and since the enactment of the statute regarding termination of “wages” by loss of the vessel (Title 46 U.S.C. section 593

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Bluebook (online)
262 F. Supp. 152, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henderson-v-arundel-corporation-mdd-1966.