Petersen v. Marine Transport Lines, Inc.

86 Cal. App. 2d 927
CourtAppellate Division of the Superior Court of California
DecidedFebruary 20, 1948
DocketCiv. A. No. 1826
StatusPublished

This text of 86 Cal. App. 2d 927 (Petersen v. Marine Transport Lines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Superior Court of California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petersen v. Marine Transport Lines, Inc., 86 Cal. App. 2d 927 (Cal. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinions

MURPHY, J.

The pertinent facts upon this appeal are as follows: The respondent joined the S. S. “Clifford D. Mallory” at the port of Batangas, Philippine Islands, as a fireman-water tender. At that time the vessel was anchored awaiting the'discharge of its cargo. The ship remained in port during the entire period of the respondent’s service.

One afternoon, April 12, 1946, the respondent, with permission,, went ashore. He obtained a ride on an Army truck and proceeded to travel in the outlying district of the port. The record fails to reveal with any degree of accuracy how far the plaintiff went from the ship. However, the respondent finally left the truck sometime later at an Army camp. There is no evidence of any misconduct on the part of the plaintiff.

The afternoon or evening of the same day the respondent was set upon by assailants unknown to him, sustaining injuries which are the subject matter of this litigation. He returned to the ship and worked thereon for six days before he was sent to a hospital by the captain of the vessel.

We are called upon to determine whether a seaman, injured under such circumstances, may be properly compensated for wages and bonus covering the period of time following the shoreride injuries sustained by him.

[929]*929It is urged by the defendant and appellant that there is no evidence to support a finding that plaintiff and respondent was acting in the service of his ship, or pursuant to some duty attached to his job of fireman-water tender at the time of his injury or at any time immediately preceding it.

It is argued further that plaintiff and respondent sustained the injury while upon “a frolic of his own.”

If this were a case of first impression it would appear that such arguments of appellant are patently sound.

But we are confronted with a philosophy of law which has found its way into the decisions of our United States Supreme Court. This philosophy of law finds its most articulate expression in the case of Aguilar v. Standard Oil, 318 U.S. 724 [63 S.Ct. 930, 935, 87 L.Ed. 1107].

The decision therein was broad in its scope and was founded, among other things, upon considerations peculiarly applicable to seamen. Thus it was held in the court’s opinion that:

“To relieve the shipowner of his obligation in the case of injuries incurred on shore leave would cast upon the seamen hazards encountered only by reason of the voyage. The assumption is hardly sound that the normal uses and purposes of shore leave are exclusively personal and have no relation to the vessel’s business. Men cannot live for long cooped up aboard ship without substantial impairment of their efficiency, if not also serious danger to discipline. Relaxation beyond the confines of the ship is necessary if the work is to go on, more so that it may move smoothly. No master would take a crew to sea if he could not grant shore leave, and no crew would be taken if it could never obtain it. Even more for the seamen than for the landsman, therefore, the superfluous is the necessary ... to make life livable and to get work done. In short, shore leave is an elemental necessity in the sailing of ships, a part of the business as old as the art, not merely a personal diversion.
“The voyage creates not only the need for relaxation ashore, but the necessity that it be satisfied in distant and unfamiliar ports. If in those surroundings a seaman, without disqualifying misconduct, contracts disease or incurs injuries, it is because of the voyage, the shipowner’s business. That business has separated him from his usual places of association. By adding this separation to the restrictions of living as well as working aboard, it forges dual and unique compulsions for [930]*930seeking relief wherever it may be found. In some, it is the ship’s business which subjects the seaman to the risks attending hours of relaxation in strange surroundings. Accordingly, it is but reasonable that the business extend the same protections against injury from them as it gives for other risks of the employment.”

From the foregoing language we glean the philosophy underlying the law as it stands today in cases of this character.

This philosophy is further expressed in Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith, 305 U.S. 424, 431 [59 S.Ct. 262, 266, 83 L.Ed. 265], wherein Chief Justice Stone expressed his views as follows:

“Seamen are the wards of the admiralty, whose traditional policy it has been to avoid, within reasonable limits, the application of rules of the common law which would affect them harshly because of the special circumstances attending their calling. ... It is for this reason that remedial legislation for the benefit and protection of seamen has been liberally construed to attain that end.”

In its memorandum of Points and Authorities the appellant relies upon Meyer v. Dollar S. S. Lines, 49 F.2d 1002. This case was reviewed by the Supreme Court and its philosophy was expressly rejected by the Supreme Court in the Aguilar case. Jackson v. Pittsburgh S. S. Co., 131 F.2d 668 and decided in 1942, is also relied upon by the appellants. An examination of it reveals that the plaintiff seaman, while a member of the crew of a steamship, desired to go ashore after going off watch. Proceeding to the forward part of the main deck to descend the ladder to the dock, he found none available and requested a fellow member of the crew to place a ladder over the side of the vessel so that he might go ashore. His request was refused and the plaintiff jumped from the vessel to the dock, a distance of about 6 feet, sustaining painful and serious injuries.

The court, in affirming an order dismissing the complaint, held that assuming a breach of duty on the part of the owners in their failure to provide a ladder, nevertheless such negligence bore no causal relation to the injuries of the plaintiff which followed.

In other words, in this case the court held that in order to recover, an injured seaman must have acted without gross negligence or misconduct, and his own wilful wrongdoing give him no right against the vessel or her owners.

[931]*931The seaman was not compelled to jump. The only injury that he might have anticipated in the circumstances would have been inconvenience or delay in leaving the vessel. He acted upon his own volition in jumping, and by so doing brought about an intervening cause for which his own wilful misconduct is responsible.

Collins v. Dollar S. S. Lines, Inc., Ltd., 23 F.Supp. 395, 397, decided in 1938, is also relied upon by the appellants.

Certain crew members of the vessel involved, engaged in a game of baseball for recreation and Collins sustained serious and permanent injuries. The game occurred ashore. Again the question was: Whether the injuries were sustained “in the service of the ship?”

Citing Meyer v. Dollar S. S. Lines, Inc., Ltd., 49 F.2d 1002

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Smith
305 U.S. 424 (Supreme Court, 1939)
Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co. of NJ
318 U.S. 724 (Supreme Court, 1943)
Moss v. Alaska Packers Assn.
70 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 857 (California Court of Appeal, 1945)
Meyer v. Dollar S. S. Line
49 F.2d 1002 (Ninth Circuit, 1931)
Kyriakos v. Goulandris
151 F.2d 132 (Second Circuit, 1945)
Jackson v. Pittsburgh S. S. Co.
131 F.2d 668 (Sixth Circuit, 1942)
Collins v. Dollar S. S. Lines, Inc.
23 F. Supp. 395 (S.D. New York, 1938)
Nowery v. Smith
69 F. Supp. 755 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1946)
Peterson v. The Chandos
4 F. 645 (D. Oregon, 1880)
The City of Alexandria
17 F. 390 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York, 1883)
The Bouker No. 2
241 F. 831 (Second Circuit, 1917)
The A. Heaton
43 F. 592 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1890)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 Cal. App. 2d 927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petersen-v-marine-transport-lines-inc-calappdeptsuper-1948.