McCarthy v. Bark Peking

676 F.2d 42, 1982 A.M.C. 2025
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided April 12, 1982·No. No. 445, Docket 81-7587·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

TIMBERS, Circuit Judge:

On this appeal from a summary judgment entered on motion of defendant South [44] Street Seaport Museum, pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 54(b),1 in the Southern District of New York, Whitman Knapp, District Judge, dismissing an action in which plaintiff, an employee of the Museum, sought damages and other relief as the result of his fall from a bosun’s chair suspended by a gantline on the Bark Peking while the latter was berthed at the Museum, the questions presented are (1) whether the district court correctly ruled that plaintiff was not engaged in “maritime employment” so as to bring him within the definition of an employee in § 2(3) of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (“LHWCA”), 33 U.S.C. § 902(3) (1976);2 and (2) whether the district court correctly ruled that plaintiff had forfeited his right to claim a wrongful discharge pursuant to § 11(c)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (“OSHA”), 29 U.S.C. § 660(c)(1) (1976).3

We agree with Judge Knapp’s rulings with respect to both questions. We affirm.

I.

In his opinion dated June 3, 1981, Judge Knapp succinctly described the Bark Peking as follows:

“The [B]ark PEKING, launched in 1911 at Hamburg, Germany, is a four-masted steel-hulled 377-foot vessel weighing 2,883 net tons. Between 1974 and 1976 it was purchased for its present owners, defendant South Street Seaport Museum; towed across the Atlantic to New York; berthed for repairs on Staten Island; and, ultimately, towed to South Street Seaport. It there serves as a museum and is occasionally rented out to private parties as an entertainment hall. Although it remains capable of being towed, its rudder has been welded in one position and it has not put to sea under its own motive power since the 1930’s. It is not subject to inspection by the United States Coast Guard and has not been so inspected. Its present owners affirm that they do not intend ever to return it to active navigation, and nothing in the record before us suggests a contrary intent.”

We adopt Judge Knapp’s description of the vessel which is supported by the record. We note only that, like all venerable vessels which never die, the Peking would like nothing more than to slip her moorings, ease into the harbor and head for the open seas, with the seagulls in her wake.

Sadly, she is fated not to do so.

II.

On December 12, 1979, plaintiff Craig McCarthy, a self-styled “historical iron-worker and shiprigger,” while employed by the Museum, was painting the upper mainmast and spars of the Peking. He was suspended in a bosun’s chair which he controlled by a gantline — a length of one-inch manilla line. The gantline “parted”, causing plaintiff to fall some 60 feet where he grabbed a stay and thence climbed down another 60 feet to the deck below. He returned to work on March 13, 1980.4

[45] On March 14, 1980, the day following his return to work, plaintiff, after conferring with members of the staff of the Museum, met with John B. Hightower, the president of the Museum. Plaintiff told Hightower that the Peking was seriously unsafe in several respects. Hightower, believing that plaintiff’s conduct amounted to insubordination, fired him.

On June 9,1980, plaintiff commenced the instant action in the Southern District of New York. In Count I of his complaint, plaintiff alleged admiralty and maritime jurisdiction and asserted a claim under the LHWCA for negligence against the Museum and the Peking, claiming that their negligence caused his fall on December 12, 1979. In Count II of his complaint, plaintiff alleged that the Museum discharged him in violation of his rights under the OSHA and the regulations promulgated thereunder.

Upon the Museum’s motion for summary judgment, Judge Knapp, in a well reasoned opinion granted the motion with respect to both counts of the complaint and dismissed the action. From the judgment entered on Judge Knapp’s opinion, this appeal has been taken.

III.

Turning to appellant’s claim under the LHWCA, he contends, first, that he was an “employee” within the meaning of § 2(3) of the LHWCA, 33 U.S.C. § 902(3) (1976). Second, he contends that he was injured as the result of the negligence of a vessel within the meaning of 33 U.S.C. § 905(b) (1976), so that his remedies are not limited by the exclusivity provision of the LHWCA, 33 U.S.C. § 905(a) (1976). Since we hold that the record establishes that he was not engaged in maritime employment, we do not reach his second contention.

In P. C. Pfeiffer Co. v. Ford, 444 U.S. 69 (1979), the Supreme Court explained that the status test for recovery under the LHWCA is not directed at geographical considerations but “refers to the nature of a worker’s activities.”5 Id. at 78. The fact that appellant’s accident took place on the Peking is not dispositive of the question of whether he was engaged in “maritime employment” within the meaning of § 2(3) of the LHWCA.

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McCarthy v. Bark Peking, 676 F.2d 42, 1982 A.M.C. 2025 (2d Cir. 1982).

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McCARTHY v. BARK PEKING
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