Louis R. Lanier v. United States

A merchant seaman appeals a summary judgment which held, in effect, that the owner of the ship has no duty to furnish land transportation to members of the crew ashore on liberty in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.

The plaintiff in this admiralty action was injured when a motor bicycle operated for hire by an enterprising Vietnamese carried him into a collision with another vehicle in Saigon-bound traffic.

The plaintiff asserted that the shipowner was negligent in failing to provide land transportation to convey off-duty sailors from the pier into town, a distance of some two miles. He also alleged that the shipowner was negligent in failing to warn him that the available land transportation was not dependable. An allegation that the vessel was unsea-worthy because of a failure to supply safe land transportation was included in the record on appeal, but abandoned on oral argument.

The ship was berthed at a United States port facility serving Saigon. The record indicates that taxis served the area but none was immediately available to the plaintiff at the time he decided to go into town.

The trial court granted summary judgment, on the ground that the shipowner’s duty to his crew…