DiBernardo

Plaintiffs were the owners of a fishing boat known as the Santa Maria. On December 12, 1955, while the boat was at the dock of defendant’s cannery at the Los Angeles Harbor and while sardines were being removed from the boat by mechanical equipment, a seaman, Mr. Morelli, who was on the boat and was an employee of plaintiffs, was injured. Plaintiffs, having paid certain amounts for his wages, medical expenses, and general damages, commenced this action to recover, as indemnity, the amounts so paid by them. In a nonjury trial, judgment was for defendant. Plaintiffs appeal from the judgment.

In the first cause of action of the second amended complaint the plaintiffs sought reimbursement of $2,752.57 paid by them for wages, “maintenance and cure” in connection with the injury to Morelli. In the second and third causes of action plaintiffs sought recovery of $5,663.43 which they paid to Morelli in settlement of his claim for general damages in the amount of $15,000. In each cause of action it was alleged that the “sole, or active or primary, and proximate cause of the injuries sustained” by Morelli was the “negligent and reckless action of the defendant’s agent, Matt Bebich, as…