Michael J. Ryan v. Pacific Coast Shipping Co., Liberia, Pacific Coast Shipping Co., Liberia v. Scrap Loaders, Inc.

The appeal in No. 24934 involves a suit by Michael J. Ryan, a “Sieracki sea man” (i. e., a longshoreman performing “ships work,” Seas Shipping Co. v. Sier-acki, 328 U.S. 85 , 66 S.Ct. 872 , 90 L.Ed. 1099 (1946)) against Pacific Coast Shipping Co., Liberia, a shipowner, to recover damages for personal injuries resulting from the alleged unseaworthiness of the ship Popeye.

Number 24935 is an appeal in the companion suit brought by Pacific Coast (the shipowner) against the stevedoring company, Scrap Loaders, Inc., to recover “Ryan-permitted” indemnity, (Ryan Stevedoring Co. v. Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corp., 350 U.S. 124 , 76 S.Ct. 232 , 100 L.Ed. 133 (1956) ) for such sum as it may be required to pay out in Ryan’s suit. The cases were tried together, without a jury, and in each of them judgment went for the plaintiff.

In the main appeal (i. e., No. 24934) shipowner insists that Ryan’s injuries resulted not from any unseaworthiness of the Popeye but instead from a fellow longshoreman’s “operational negligence,” and hence the judgment must be reversed. Usner v. Luckenbach Overseas Corp., 400 U.S. 494 , 91 S.Ct. 514 , 27 L. Ed.2d 562 (1971); Tim v. American Pres. Lines, Ltd., 409 F.2d…