POLLACK, District Judge:
Orazio Albergo, a longshoreman employed by Hellenic Lines, Inc., tripped over loose lashing rope scattered on the deck of a ship being off-loaded by stevedores and fell suffering injury. Pursuant to § 905(b) of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-950 (1976), Albergo brought this third-party negligence action against the vessel owner in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After a five day trial, the jury returned a verdict of $80,000 in favor of Albergo and found that plaintiff’s negligence contributed to the accident to the extent of 25%. Judge Sweet set aside the jury’s verdict and granted judgment N.O.V. to the defendant dismissing the complaint on the grounds that the open, obvious and known scattering of loose cuttings of lashing rope on the deck which plaintiff himself had pushed aside with his hand just before the accident did not present a negligent condition in the work area or pose an unavoidable danger to the stevedoring crew and their operation and could not legally support a charge of negligence against the vessel. Plaintiff appeals. We affirm.
Plaintiff, 58 years of age at the time of the accident, started out as a winch operator in stevedoring operations but due to an injury in 1956 in that capacity he became a stevedore’s deckman. The accident sued on is plaintiff’s fourth instance and claim of injury as a longshoreman.
On April 24, 1978 defendant’s vessel, the Hellenic Leader, was discharging cargo at a pier in Brooklyn, New York using plaintiff and other longshoremen as deckmen employed by Hellenic Lines in its stevedoring capacity. The men started work at 8 A.M. on that day. Their task initially was to rig up and remove deck cargo consisting of containers and cartons from the main deck, located inshore and offshore. The cargo was lashed together with “skinny ropes” [so styled by plaintiff] that were cut from the containers by the ship’s crew during the stevedoring operation; the cuttings were left strewn on the deck. The lashings on the offshore deck cargo were cut by the ship’s crew while the longshoremen worked [68]*68the inshore deck cargo, to ready the offshore containers to be moved. There were two or three vans on the offshore side. The cuttings were open and obvious to the longshoremen. This was not an unusual way of unlashing cargo; plaintiff testified that on other occasions he had seen crews leaving cuttings of such ropes on the decks.
Having completed the removal of the inshore cargo, the stevedores moved to respot the up and down boom to the offshore side. However, the work plan was changed before the offshore containers were moved; the men were told to leave the offshore deck cargo for later on and instead, to raise the cargo from the hold in Hatch # 5. In the respotting process the preventer guy was slacked off so that plaintiff could fasten it to the deck (through a pad-eye). Plaintiff shackled the preventer guy to the deck and the slack was taken up. He was then told to recheck the fastening and did so and in turning away from the preventer, the fall, which caused this law suit, occurred.
Though the testimony was imprecise and vague concerning the manner of the occurrence, leaving much to the imagination, the evidence showed that prior to initially fastening the preventer guy to the deck, the plaintiff found lashing rope cuttings from the containers strewn in that part of the deck area where the preventer was to be fastened and he swept these “skinny rope” cuttings aside with his hand from the place where he had to do the shackling which he testified he did “just to clean up that very area there, just to move the shackling through the pad-eye.” The guy was then loosened up by the winchman and the plaintiff turned the lock down on the preventer, the boom was raised and it was stopped when it reached the top and was fast and the plaintiff then locked up the guy. Plaintiff stood up and told the signalman that it was okay. He was asked by his co-worker to “give it another check”. Plaintiff gave the guy a second check in the very area from which he had just swept away the rope, and then announced, “It’s okay, it’s locked”. Plaintiff then turned around to leave that very area he had cleared but according to his testimony he nevertheless tripped on some rope and fell down. Plaintiff testified that when he went into this area there were rope cuttings in between and around his feet and that he moved some of it so it wouldn’t be over the shackle. He testified he had seen it before; “we worked on ropes all morning.” When he got to the timekeeper’s office he told him that he had tripped over a pad-eye covered with lashings.
The crux of the claim of negligence against the vessel is whether the presence of rope cuttings on the deck that plaintiff undertook to move with his hand to clear his work space can legally support a charge of third-party negligence against the vessel. Loose rope as such has no inherent mobility or dangerous propensities — not tied down, and left lying under foot openly and obviously it does not, in and of itself on a ship, pose an unreasonable risk of harní.' As a matter of law a charge of negligence of the vessel can only be predicated on hazardous conditions or circumstances and not on ordinary clumsiness of movement of the longshoreman. The case might be different under the discarded theory of unseaworthiness which was a liability of a vessel eliminated in 1972 by the Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. during cargo operations.
In his opinion the Judge said
as a matter of law the ship is not required to provide an immaculate working place, see Giglio v. Farrell Lines [613 F.2d 429 (2d Cir. 1980)]; Hickman v. Jugoslavenska Linijsk Plovidba Rigcka, Zvir, 570 F.2d 449 (2d Cir. 1978), and if there is ever anything to be expected aboard a vessel, it is a line. There is simply no basis in fact upon which a jury could conclude that the cut line was a dangerous condition that the ship could reasonably conclude could not be avoided, particularly since Albergo had in fact avoided it once.
The Judge went on to say
. . . There is but one conclusion reasonable men could have reached here: that is, [69]*69that Hellenic could reasonably have expected Albergo to avoid the cut line. Since Albergo could have avoided the cut line, Hellenic, in failing to remove it, did not deviate from the standard of care imposed upon it by the law of this Circuit.
The place of plaintiff’s employment was an area in which the law has imposed on the stevedore the primary obligation, as a matter of “Housekeeping”, to “be kept reasonably clear of lines, bridles, dunnage and all other loose tripping or stumbling hazards”. 29 C.F.R. § 1918.1(a) [OSHA], The duty to clear away any loose debris when that can be done as plaintiff did it here, is placed squarely on the stevedore employer, not the vessel owner. Thus, the danger to be perceived, if any, spells the duty of the stevedore to be observed.
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POLLACK, District Judge:
Orazio Albergo, a longshoreman employed by Hellenic Lines, Inc., tripped over loose lashing rope scattered on the deck of a ship being off-loaded by stevedores and fell suffering injury. Pursuant to § 905(b) of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-950 (1976), Albergo brought this third-party negligence action against the vessel owner in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After a five day trial, the jury returned a verdict of $80,000 in favor of Albergo and found that plaintiff’s negligence contributed to the accident to the extent of 25%. Judge Sweet set aside the jury’s verdict and granted judgment N.O.V. to the defendant dismissing the complaint on the grounds that the open, obvious and known scattering of loose cuttings of lashing rope on the deck which plaintiff himself had pushed aside with his hand just before the accident did not present a negligent condition in the work area or pose an unavoidable danger to the stevedoring crew and their operation and could not legally support a charge of negligence against the vessel. Plaintiff appeals. We affirm.
Plaintiff, 58 years of age at the time of the accident, started out as a winch operator in stevedoring operations but due to an injury in 1956 in that capacity he became a stevedore’s deckman. The accident sued on is plaintiff’s fourth instance and claim of injury as a longshoreman.
On April 24, 1978 defendant’s vessel, the Hellenic Leader, was discharging cargo at a pier in Brooklyn, New York using plaintiff and other longshoremen as deckmen employed by Hellenic Lines in its stevedoring capacity. The men started work at 8 A.M. on that day. Their task initially was to rig up and remove deck cargo consisting of containers and cartons from the main deck, located inshore and offshore. The cargo was lashed together with “skinny ropes” [so styled by plaintiff] that were cut from the containers by the ship’s crew during the stevedoring operation; the cuttings were left strewn on the deck. The lashings on the offshore deck cargo were cut by the ship’s crew while the longshoremen worked [68]*68the inshore deck cargo, to ready the offshore containers to be moved. There were two or three vans on the offshore side. The cuttings were open and obvious to the longshoremen. This was not an unusual way of unlashing cargo; plaintiff testified that on other occasions he had seen crews leaving cuttings of such ropes on the decks.
Having completed the removal of the inshore cargo, the stevedores moved to respot the up and down boom to the offshore side. However, the work plan was changed before the offshore containers were moved; the men were told to leave the offshore deck cargo for later on and instead, to raise the cargo from the hold in Hatch # 5. In the respotting process the preventer guy was slacked off so that plaintiff could fasten it to the deck (through a pad-eye). Plaintiff shackled the preventer guy to the deck and the slack was taken up. He was then told to recheck the fastening and did so and in turning away from the preventer, the fall, which caused this law suit, occurred.
Though the testimony was imprecise and vague concerning the manner of the occurrence, leaving much to the imagination, the evidence showed that prior to initially fastening the preventer guy to the deck, the plaintiff found lashing rope cuttings from the containers strewn in that part of the deck area where the preventer was to be fastened and he swept these “skinny rope” cuttings aside with his hand from the place where he had to do the shackling which he testified he did “just to clean up that very area there, just to move the shackling through the pad-eye.” The guy was then loosened up by the winchman and the plaintiff turned the lock down on the preventer, the boom was raised and it was stopped when it reached the top and was fast and the plaintiff then locked up the guy. Plaintiff stood up and told the signalman that it was okay. He was asked by his co-worker to “give it another check”. Plaintiff gave the guy a second check in the very area from which he had just swept away the rope, and then announced, “It’s okay, it’s locked”. Plaintiff then turned around to leave that very area he had cleared but according to his testimony he nevertheless tripped on some rope and fell down. Plaintiff testified that when he went into this area there were rope cuttings in between and around his feet and that he moved some of it so it wouldn’t be over the shackle. He testified he had seen it before; “we worked on ropes all morning.” When he got to the timekeeper’s office he told him that he had tripped over a pad-eye covered with lashings.
The crux of the claim of negligence against the vessel is whether the presence of rope cuttings on the deck that plaintiff undertook to move with his hand to clear his work space can legally support a charge of third-party negligence against the vessel. Loose rope as such has no inherent mobility or dangerous propensities — not tied down, and left lying under foot openly and obviously it does not, in and of itself on a ship, pose an unreasonable risk of harní.' As a matter of law a charge of negligence of the vessel can only be predicated on hazardous conditions or circumstances and not on ordinary clumsiness of movement of the longshoreman. The case might be different under the discarded theory of unseaworthiness which was a liability of a vessel eliminated in 1972 by the Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. during cargo operations.
In his opinion the Judge said
as a matter of law the ship is not required to provide an immaculate working place, see Giglio v. Farrell Lines [613 F.2d 429 (2d Cir. 1980)]; Hickman v. Jugoslavenska Linijsk Plovidba Rigcka, Zvir, 570 F.2d 449 (2d Cir. 1978), and if there is ever anything to be expected aboard a vessel, it is a line. There is simply no basis in fact upon which a jury could conclude that the cut line was a dangerous condition that the ship could reasonably conclude could not be avoided, particularly since Albergo had in fact avoided it once.
The Judge went on to say
. . . There is but one conclusion reasonable men could have reached here: that is, [69]*69that Hellenic could reasonably have expected Albergo to avoid the cut line. Since Albergo could have avoided the cut line, Hellenic, in failing to remove it, did not deviate from the standard of care imposed upon it by the law of this Circuit.
The place of plaintiff’s employment was an area in which the law has imposed on the stevedore the primary obligation, as a matter of “Housekeeping”, to “be kept reasonably clear of lines, bridles, dunnage and all other loose tripping or stumbling hazards”. 29 C.F.R. § 1918.1(a) [OSHA], The duty to clear away any loose debris when that can be done as plaintiff did it here, is placed squarely on the stevedore employer, not the vessel owner. Thus, the danger to be perceived, if any, spells the duty of the stevedore to be observed. With the duty on the plaintiff’s employer it would be contradictory to suggest that loose debris of the sort here involved, so easily removable as it was here, by hand, can establish liability for negligence on the part of the vessel owner. The longshoreman is adequately protected by looking to his employer for compensation when injured by accident. Evans v. Transportacion Maritime Mexicana SS “Campeche”, 639 F.2d 848 (2d Cir. 1981) held that the ship owner could consider the stevedore to be primarily responsible for the safety of the longshoremen and to be obligated to take whatever steps are necessary to correct even an “unsafe” condition aboard the ship. Thus, this is a case, where on the testimony adduced, it must be said that as a matter of law there was no factual or legal basis for an anticipation by the ship that the plaintiff would be unable to avoid the claimed hazard despite its obviousness and the way he himself dealt with it.
The appellee cogently argues that a vessel owner is entitled, as a matter of law, to anticipate that the stevedore and his longshoremen will abide by the OSHA regulations in such a case, and take whatever steps are necessary to correct an untidy condition aboard the ship; otherwise, longshoremen such as appellant, will know they can ignore the statutes, receive compensation from the stevedore and then try for even more money by suing the vessel owner. Appellee correctly says that, “Misplacement of the statutory standard will destroy the ‘delicate balance’ for safety which . . . Congress sought to establish . . . and adjust the ship owner’s liability to that of an insurer”. As stated by this Circuit in Evans, 639 F.2d at 852:
Finally, Congress made clear that the stevedore is to have the primary responsibility for the safety of the longshoremen. Section 941 requires the stevedore to “furnish and maintain employment and places of employment which shall be reasonably safe for his employees” and to comply with the regulations promulgated under the Act. 33 U.S.C. § 941(a) (1976).
The simple act performed by the plaintiff of moving the skinny rope cuttings aside with his hand from the area where he had to shackle, which was the area of the accident, eloquently strikes down any notion of the existence of á negligent condition for which the vessel owner could be held in damages. As a matter of law there was no such negligent condition nor any basis for anticipation that the longshoreman could not avoid the rope in this case — certainly not one remaining at any time after plaintiff cleared the untidy condition impeding him.
Judgment affirmed.