Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review an award of the Industrial Accident Commission in favor of one M. Toutain, a marine machinist who was injured while installing machinery in a vessel that was being constructed by Toutain’s employer, the petitioner here. The vessel had never been in commission. It was an incomplete structure at the time of the injuries. It had, however, been launched and had been drawn up beside a dock for completion, where it was" afloat and riding the navigable waters of Los Angeles harbor at the time of the accident. Claiming that the commission’s award was based upon a maritime tort, petitioner contends that the respective rights and duties of the parties must be determined and controlled by the maritime law, and that, therefore, the application of the California Workmen’s Compensation Act would he an unauthorized invasion of. the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts.

By article III, section 2, of the constitution of the United States the judicial power of the United States extends “to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.” The judicial code of the United States (40 Stats, at Large, 395 [4 Fed. Stats. Ann., p. 838; 5 Fed. Stats.…