Stevenson v. The Steamship Boveric

3 Alaska 457
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedDecember 19, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 3 Alaska 457 (Stevenson v. The Steamship Boveric) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stevenson v. The Steamship Boveric, 3 Alaska 457 (D. Alaska 1907).

Opinion

MOORE, District Judge.-

That the winchman in charge of’ the amidship boom was guilty of want of ordinary care in hoisting the scales and sling till they came in collision with the boom above and the gin block was clearly proven by the evidence. He seems to have disregarded the signal of the hatchway tender to lower the scales, if he observed the signal, and he does not in his testimony deny that the hatchwayman made the signal, or that he noticed it. The winchman had the independent duty cast upon him, by virtue of his position- and [461]*461relations to the ship and work to be observant, and to so regulate and direct the motion of the scales and sling as to avoid injury to workmen and property. But, even if the signal was not heard or seen by the winchman, his raising the scales so as to cause them to strike the boom above was under the circumstances unnecessary, and showed culpable negligence on his part.

The winchman testified that, on seeing the ascending scales were about to be dropped from their hook, without shutting-off all the steam, he went to shout a warning to the stevedores at work in and about the hatch. His plain first duty was to arrest the upward movement of the scales by stopping his winch at once. This upon his own admission he did not do. The libelant, in imputing the negligence of the winchman to the ship and its owners, proceeds upon- the theory that the winchman was the servant of the ship.

The respondent’s contention, on the other hand, is that the' winchmen were given over to the sole control of the charterers .and their agents, and that the winchmen were fellow servants of the injured libelant under the contracting stevedores, and hence having assumed, by virtue of his employment, the risk •of injuries by his fellow servants, the ship cannot be held responsible for the negligent acts of one of the winchmen. The winchmen were assigned by the master of the ship from the ship’s crew to operate the winches in discharging the cargo, and during the process they remained members of the crew and continued to receive their wages from the ship. The owners of the ship, it seems, preferred to operate their winches with men of their own choosing, whom they were at liberty to discharge and to displace with others, if their work should not prove satisfactory to them, or to the charterers or their agent, the lighterage company. They were put at the disposal of the .charterer, because the charter party bound them so to do.

In co-operating with the stevedores aboard the ship in the [462]*462work of discharging the ship, they were, from necessity, compelled to obey the signals of some person at the hatchway, because they could not see the sling while it was below the combing of the hatchway, and could not see the stevedores at work in loading the sling. The owners, without violating any part of their contract with the charterers, could have placed in the stevedore’s place at the hatchway, or with him, one of the crew whose signals the winchmen would have been bound to obey. They did not provide a hatchway tender, and the winchmen obeyed him simply because he was there to give signals, and not because the charter party absolutely required obedience from them.

It is to be noted that during the time when the scales and sling were moving in that part of their circuit above the hatchway and the upper steamer deck and its side rail the winchmen were well abíe to regulate the movements of their winches without any assistance from the hatchway tender. For that period of time the winchmen were, it may be justly said, masters of all the movements of the sling and scales, except at such times as the customs officer might desire to have the scales released from their attachment to the freight hook and sling. It was while the scales were moving along the upper arc of their circuit that they fell upon the libelant.

It is a fact, too, of considerable importance in the decision of the case, that the injuries were received at the moment when the scales and sling were being forced by the amidship winch-man upward in disregard of the signals and shouts of the hatchway tender, and when the hatch fall was in the sight of the winchman. At that particular time the winchman was charged with the duty of-exercising his own mind and will, so as to avoid doing harm to the workmen; for he then assumed to direct the speed and movements of the machine without the aid of the hatchwayman. In the light of all these facts, brought out and established by the evidence, the conclusion is [463]*463inevitable that the libelant’s injuries were directly caused, first, by the lack of care evinced by the amidship winchman in hoisting the fall controlled by him till it struck the gin block, and afterwards by his neglect to shut off all the steam, when he left the winch with some steam on to sound the alarm of danger. It follows that the hatchway tender must be acquitted of all agency in causing the scales to fall upon the libelant. Unless the winchman is to be treated as the fellow servant of the libelant, the ship must be held responsible to the libelant for his injuries, losses, and sufferings and impairment of bodily power.

In support of the proposition that the respondents must suffer in this case for the negligence of the winchman, the following authorities are closely in point: Johnson v. Navigation Co., 132 N. Y. 576, 30 N. E. 505; Sanford v. Standard Oil Co., 118 N. Y. 571, 24 N. E. 313, 16 Am. St. Rep. 787; Svenson v. Steamship Co., 57 N. Y. 108.

In the case of Johnson v. Navigation Co., supra, decided by the New York Court of Appeals, the facts were these: The plaintiff, a stevedore acting as hatchwayman in the employ of

A., gave orders, while unloading a steamer owned by B., to a winchman in the employ of B., when the rope ran off the drum of the winch onto the axle, directing him to turn the winch back. Instead of reversing the winch, the winchman started ahead, drawing the hatchwayman’s hand against the drum and cutting off some of his fingers. Held as follows:

“It is quite apparent that it was the intention of B., the vessel, to retain charge of the steam power and winch, and to operate it through its own servants and employes. And the fact that the winch-man received orders from the plaintiff when to hoist and when to lower, under the circumstances of this case, does not operate to change his relations to the defendant as its servant.”

In that case, as in the case at bar, A. took a contract from B., whereby B. was to furnish the steam power and a winch [464]*464driver to aid A. in unloading the ship, and the court further said:

“It does not appear that he [the contracting stevedore] had power to order, direct, discharge, or control the winch driver further than to signal to him, by way of the gangwayman, when to hoist or lower, go ahead, or come hack. It consequently does not appear to us that the winchman could be regarded as the servant of A.”

The court in that case relies upon these New York authorities : Sullivan v. Railroad Co., 112 N. Y. 643, 647, 20 N. E. 569, 8 Am. St. Rep. 793; Sanford v. Oil Co., 118 N. Y. 571, 24 N. E. 313, 16 Am. St. Rep. 787; Kilroy v. Canal Co., 121 N. Y. 22, 24 N. E. 192; Butler v. Townsend, 126 N. Y. 105, 26 N. E. 1017.

In Sanford v. Oil Co., supra, the facts were: Plaintiff was employed by a firm of stevedores, who had a contract to load a vessel from the dock of the defendant. Defendant furnished the hoisting apparatus, with a man to manage the same.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Alaska 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevenson-v-the-steamship-boveric-akd-1907.