Monroe v. The American Schooner Salvator

4 D. Haw. 285
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedJune 14, 1913
StatusPublished

This text of 4 D. Haw. 285 (Monroe v. The American Schooner Salvator) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Monroe v. The American Schooner Salvator, 4 D. Haw. 285 (D. Haw. 1913).

Opinion

Dole, J.

The libel in this ease alleges, substantially, that the libelant, a seaman, regularly shipp,ed on board the libellee at the port of Aberdeen, State of Washington, for a voyage to Honolulu and other places and back to the port of discharge in the United States, at wages of $40 a month; that the libellee having taken on board a cargo of lumber, sailed for Honolulu and upon- its arrival there proceeded to the discharge of such cargo, requiring the libelant to assist in such work; which it alleges was doné in a negligent, careless and improper manner, in that after the lumber in the middle of' the hold, beneath and forward of the main hatch, was removed, leaving the lumber at the sides unsupported, and without employing a skilled stevedore to superintend the work of unloading, but employing unskilled persons to remove the lumber, and during such work, while libelant was engaged therein, the lumber at the side of the hold fell over upon him, without negligence or fault on his part, breaking his right leg and dislocating his left thigh and doing other injuries; and alleges such conduct, on the part of thfe owners, to be in violation of the shipping articles and maritime contract, and claims $5,000 damages therefor; also $200 for wages to the end of the voyage and'$100 for his passage money and expenses back to Aberdeen, and $250 for care, maintenance and support, and medical attendance during his illness.

The answer of the master, as claimant, admits the ship-» ping of the libelant as alleged; denies any further obligation on the part of the owners to the libelant, except as provided in the shipping articles or that there was any agreement that the libelant should be kept safely to the end of the voyage. It admits injury to the libelant and denies [287]*287negligence on the part of the owners or that they employed unskilled persons to unload; denies that the injury occurred without negligence on the part of the libelant; denies that the fall of the lumber was due to any negligence or lack of skill or improper conduct on the part of the master or owners in any particular as alleged or otherwise; alleges that the libelant was taken by the master to the Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu and there entered as a patient of the United States public health service and received proper care and attention without charge; that the claimant is ready to transport the libelant to a port of discharge on the Pacific coast and to pay his wages during the return voyage as contemplated by the shipping articles unless libelant refuses to remain with the ship.

After the evidence was in, libelant moved to be allowed to amend the libel, in order that the pleadings might conform to the proof made and given in this suit, and to insert a new article entitled “article 4a,” alleging, substantially, that it was the duty of the owners to set to work a sufficient number of men in the hold of the vessel to properly handle and discharge the lumber and to work upon the sections and tiers and portions of tiers of said lumber, yet not regarding their duties and obligations under the contract and shipping articles, placed only one workman, to-wit,' this libelant, to handle a section or portion of a tier of said lumber, and while so working alone and without fault, such portion of a tier, without warning, fell over and caused the injuries aforesaid. This motion to amend is denied, on the ground that the evidence has failed to sustain the allegations of the proposed amendment.

" ■ The allegations of the libel as to negligence on the part of the master and owners in relation to the unloading of the lumber have not been proved by the evidence, except perhaps as to the want of expert superintendence; the weight of testimony, with hardly anything to the contrary, being that it was not the rule to support the tiers of lumber [288]*288at the sides of the hold after the lumber in line with the hatches had been removed, except in the case of such discharge of the cargo talcing place in a seaway where the rolling of the vessel required such precaution; and also that' it was not customary to have skilled stevedores superintend the work of unloading in the hold, an officer of the ship generally being on deck and attending to the portion of that part of the unloading which consisted of raising the slingloads from the hold by the donkey-engine and slinging them on to the wharf. It was generally agreed by the witnesses, with some exceptions, however, that such saiT ors as were obtained on the coast from the sailors’ unions were competent to attend to the work of unloading without any superintendence, and were as good as, or better than, stevedores; also that there was no more danger in a man’s working alone in one part of the tier of lumber, taking down pieces of lumber by himself and miking them up into a slingload, than it would be to have two men working together, except in the case of long and heavy lumber, in which it would be obviously better to have a man at each end of such pieces. The witnesses all agreed that to have four or five men working together was an unknown thing and out of the question, and would be of no value and would introduce no element of greater safety ; indeed, the witness Anderson testified that “it increases the danger of lots of men pulling on the tiers.” Tr. 62. Although he admitted, probably referring to long and heavy pieces, that one man at each end would be less dangerous than one handling alone, and even with one man at each end and one in the middle he thought it would be less dangerous. Tr. 70. Jamieson testified “it all depends if it’s big lumber or small lumber. If it’s a big piece of lumber two men usually handles it sometimes, but if ordinary lumber one man handles it all the time.” Tr. 143. Captain Tauser says two men would be safer-than one in handling lumber in unloading where the pieces are twenty or [289]*289twenty-four feet long. Tr. 127-130. There is no evidence, however, that the men were working on long and heavy pieces when the accident occurred, but on the contrary they werejiandling the small pieces.

The main point in this ease is to ascertain to what was due the fall of the tier of lumber which caused the injury. If it fell because of bad stowage or because of bad stowage and the act of the ihaster in listing the vessel so far as to promote the disaster, the owners would be liable, unless the persons who stowed the lumber in Aberdeen were fellow-servants of the libelant.

The only witness who can testify to the stowing of the lumber at Aberdeen are Henry Abenth, then the second mate of the libellee, and Captain Huhs, master of the libellee, who was in the hold three or four times most every day, and Mr Speckman. Abenth says he had to look “after all the stowage below deck.” Tr. 44. Upon being asked by counsel as to stowing the lumber he endeavored, not very successfully, to explain his methods, and finally to the question “How did you do the Salvator?” he replied, “I worked the Salvator the same as I done any other vessel. I can’t explain any other way. In lumber business a man knows how to stow lumber; he don’t work any different in this vessel or any other vessel.” Tr. 48.

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Bluebook (online)
4 D. Haw. 285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monroe-v-the-american-schooner-salvator-hid-1913.