Alaska Packers Assn. v. Industrial Accident Commission

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review an award of the Industrial Accident Commission. An employee of the petitioner, working on hoard a vessel in navigable waters, sustained personal injuries for which he sought and was awarded 'Compensation in a proceeding before the Industrial Accident Commission. It is the contention of the petitioner that at the time of the injury the employee was performing maritime service on a completed vessel afloat, and that the respondent was without jurisdiction in the matter.

The facts involved in this proceeding are substantially as follows: The employee, J. Hansen, was, for a number of years, employed by the petitioner as a seaman and fisherman on the annual voyages made by the fleet of the petitioner engaged in salmon fishing in Alaskan waters. One of the vessels of the fleet was a three-masted bark “Star of England.” This vessel, with the others of the fleet and the different crews, returned from an Alaskan voyage at the end of the fishing season in September, 1921. It was the intention of the petitioner to send the “Star of England” and other vessels back to Alaska in May, 1922, and the bark did, in fact, sail for Alaska on the latter…