Victory Carriers, Inc., a Corporation v. Stockton Stevedoring Co.

A longshoreman was injured while engaged in his work aboard the vessel SS COE VICTORY, owned and operated by the appellant. He instituted suit against appellant, and the appellant, by inter-pleader, sought to be indemnified by the longshoreman’s employer, the appellee, in the event of a determination of its, the shipowner’s, liability to the longshoreman. The trial resulted in the conclusion of the District Court, sitting in admiralty, that the shipowner should re spond in damages to the longshoreman and that it was not entitled to indemnity from the stevedore. From both aspects of the judgment, the shipowner appealed. Following a compromise, it dismissed its appeal from the judgment in favor of the longshoreman, and the appeal now before us pertains only to the judgment in favor of the remaining appellee, the stevedore. The District Court’s jurisdiction properly rested upon 28 U.S.C. § 1333 and Admiralty Rule 56. Our power of review is conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

At the time of the accident from which the suit arose, the appellant’s vessel was berthed at Pier No. 8 in the Port of Stockton, California. It arrived there without cargo at 3 o’clock during the afternoon of…