Regino Martin Espino v. Ocean Cargo Line, Ltd., Etc.

On February 29, 1964, Regino Martin Espino, a ship scaler, was injured while working aboard a vessel owned by Ocean Cargo Line, Ltd. On June 3, 1965 — approximately fifteen months after the accident — Espino sued Ocean Cargo in admiralty alleging negligence and unseaworthiness. Ocean Cargo filed an exception asserting that the claim was barred by laches. The district court dismissed the action on the authority of Brown v. Kayler, 273 F.2d 588 (9th Cir. 1959). We reverse.

In applying the doctrine of laches to suits in admiralty, the courts have customarily given weight to the period provided by statute for filing comparable non-admiralty suit, we assumed in Brown v. Kayler (as courts had generally assumed) that the appropriate period in a case such as the present one was that provided for the filing of a personal injury action in the state in which the cause of action arose — in this instance the one-year period fixed by section 340(3) of California Code of Civil Procedure.

Espino argues that this was error, and that the more appropriate referent is the three-year limitations period of the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688 , as the Fifth Circuit (Flowers v. Savannah Machine & Foundry…