Judith Ann Liberian Transport Corporation, Ltd., a Foreign Corporation v. Wayne Crawford and Brady-Hamilton Stevedore Company, a Corporation

Appellee Crawford, a longshoreman, brought suit in the District Court for the District of Oregon for injuries sustained while engaged in unloading the freighter, JUDITH ANN, allegedly cause by the unseaworthy condition of the ship. Suit was brought against appellant, the ship’s owner, with jurisdiction founded on diversity of citizenship. Appellant impleaded appellee Brady-Hamilton Stevedore Company, Crawford’s employer, asserting a right to indemnity. A jury trial resulted in a verdict against the shipowner in favor of Crawford and also against the shipowner on its claim of indemnity against Brady-Hamilton. The shipowner appeals from judgment in both respects.

Crawford was a member of a longshoreman gang engaged in unloading bundles of 20-foot bars of reinforcing steel (known as “rebar”) from the hold of the JUDITH ANN. The bundles were resting on dunnage less than one inch in thickness. This did not allow sufficient space between and under bundles for use of the regular cargo sling. The stevedore resorted to use of a pick-up sling to raise one end of the bundles in order that the cargo sling might then be brought under and around them. During the course of this operation one…