Ace Tractor & Equipment Co., Inc. v. Olympic Steamship Co., Inc.

The question presented on this appeal is whether Olympic Steamship Company, Inc., the bareboat charterer of a merchant vessel, is entitled to indemnity from Ace Tractor and Equipment Company, Inc., the voyage charterer, for sums expended in settling a claim of a seaman for injuries received during loading operations conducted by Ace Tractor aboard the ship.

Olympic entered into a Voyage Charter Party whereby Ace Tractor chartered the merchant vessel for a voyage from San Francisco to Alaskan waters and return. The Charter Party provided in part as follows:

Calvin H. Sides, a radio operator and seaman employed by Olympic, was helping with the loading operations in the number 4 hold of the vessel when it was in Amchitka, Aleutian Islands. Ace Tractor was in charge and control of the work, and one of its employees operating a winch attempted to pull or drag a sling load of steel mats, weighing approxi mately two thousand pounds, toward the side of the hold. A steel wire strap used in the operation parted and caused the load to strike Sides, injuring him seriously.

Sides filed an action for damages in the United States District Court of Washington against Olympic, alleging…