Wayne A. Normile v. Maritime Company of the Philippines

Plaintiff was injured while working as a federally employed longshoreman unloading defendant’s ship. Although entitled to receive workman’s compensation as a federal employee, he instituted suit against defendant, inter alia, on the ground that its vessel was not in seaworthy condition.

Defendant moved to bar plaintiff from trying the issue of unseaworthiness, asserting that longshoremen have no right to maintain that cause of action. The motion was granted. The case is now on interlocutory appeal. 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b).

We hold that no longshoreman, whether publicly or privately employed, can bring an unseaworthiness action. Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

In Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85 , 66 S.Ct. 872 , 90 L.Ed. 1099 (1946), the Supreme Court modified the law of admiralty to grant a privately employed longshoreman the right to sue for unseaworthiness the owner of the vessel on which he was injured. Sierackis holding was subsequently expanded by analogy in lower courts to include a publicly employed longshoreman. See, e. g., Sandoval v. Mitsui Sempaku K. K. Tokyo, 460 F.2d 1163 (5th Cir. 1972). Relying upon that expansion, plaintiff public employee instituted the…