West Coast Terminals Co. Of California v. Luckenbach Steamship Company, Inc.

Appellant, a stevedoring company, prosecutes this appeal from a judgment in favor of appellee shipowner for damages for breach of an express contract of indemnity, arising out of a claim for personal injuries suffered by one of appellee’s seamen employees.

The facts, as disclosed by the admissions and stipulations of the parties and the findings of the District Court, are briefly as follows. On December 16, 1955, one of appellee’s seamen, Jose Bar-reto, was injured aboard appellee’s vessel, the “HARRY LUCKENBACH”, at Oakland, California, while appellant stevedore company was engaged in discharging cargo from that vessel under a stevedoring contract with appellee, which provided, inter alia:

[Cf.: Waterman S. S. Corp. v. Dugan & McNamara, Inc., 364 U.S. 421 , 81 S.Ct. 200 , 5 L.Ed.2d 169 (1960); Ryan Stevedoring Co. v. Pan-Atlantic S. S. Corp., 350 U.S. 124 , 76 S.Ct. 232 , 100 L.Ed. 133 (1956); and see Italia Societa per Azioni di Navigazione v. Oregon Stevedoring Co., 336 F.2d 124 (9th Cir. 1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 973 , 85 S.Ct. 668 , 13 L.Ed.2d 565 (1965).]

The material circumstances surrounding seaman Barreto’s injury are these. The main deck hatches of the “HARRY…