Northwestern Steamship Co. v. Griggs

It appears from the record that the defendant in error was employed by one Cox to feed and care for a lot of sheep that were shipped by Cox on the ship of the plaintiff in error from Seattle to Nome, Alaska. Some horses and cattle were also shipped by the same vessel, stalls for which were erected on the main deck. Above those stalls, on what is spoken of in the record as a “false deck,” pens for the sheep were built; the top of the stalls being the floor of the pens. The outer side of the pens was flush with the railing of the ship, and, running along the inner side thereof was a walkway, from IS to 18 inches wide, between which and the hatchway of the ship was no railing, rope, or other thing. This walkway was placed in order that the sheep might be fed and watered, and it was while employed in feeding them that the defendant in error fell through the hatchway into the hold of the ship, sustaining the injuries for which he sued. On the trial in the court below the plaintiff in error offered to prove, among other things, that it had made other plans for the pens and for the feeding of the sheep, but that Cox insisted, that they should be constructed as they were, which proof,…