Eliud A. Torres v. Johnson Lines N.Y.K. Lines

ORDER

The memorandum disposition filed March 4, 1991, is redesignated as an authored opinion by Judge Goodwin.

OPINION

Eliud Torres, a longshoreman, appeals the judgment on a defense verdict and the denial of his motion for a new trial in his negligence action against N.Y.K. Lines, the time charterer of the vessel on which he was injured. We affirm.

I. NEGLIGENCE

On April 12, 1985, Pasha Maritime Services (“Pasha”) was the stevedore in charge of offloading Mitsubishi pickup trucks from a vessel named the “Rosa Blanca.” Torres, a Pasha employee, sustained injuries when he drove one of the trucks off the end of a raised ramp cover and fell some 15 feet to a lower deck. Vessel personnel at the stevedore’s direction had raised the ramp cover from Torres’ “Deck 3” in order to access the deck immediately above. Only after the ramp cover was raised did the stevedore superintendent James Lucas instruct his supervisor employees to warn the longshoremen not to drive on it. Torres never received that warning. Moments before the accident, however, a longshoreman driving a pickup truck behind Torres’ truck noticed that the ramp was rising and honked for him to stop.

Section 5(b) of the…