United States v. Amos R. Morin

This appeal deals almost exclusively with the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings. It is an action for damages for negligent care given appellee, after sustaining injuries in an accident, by doctors of the United States Public Health Service. Suit was brought under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 2671 through 2680. Pursuant to 28 U.S. C.A. § 2402 trial was before the court sitting without a jury.

Appellee Amos R. Morin, hereafter Morin, was on June 10, 1952 employed as a seaman on a dredge owned and operated by the United States Army Engineers. About noon on that date Morin was injured in a fall from a ladder. He was at the time of the accident off duty and working at his home in Portland, Oregon. Morin’s left leg caught between the lowest rungs of the ladder resulting in a compound fracture of the left tibia and other injuries. A physician was immediately summoned and Morin was removed by ambulance to the Physicians and Surgeons Hospital in Portland, which hospital was under contract with the United States Public Health Service. Morin, by reason of his employment, was admittedly entitled to the facilities and services of the Public…