Prestlien

The appellee was working as a member of the longshoremen’s crew loading the Chinese steamship Shangho and in the course of his employment he started up the gangplank leading from the dock to the upper deck of the vessel. The lashing which had secured the upper end of the gangplank had been removed for the purpose of permitting the ship to be moved a short distance along the dock. Because of the removal of these lashings, the gangplank fell to the dock and the appellee was injured. He filed a libel in admiralty to recover for the injuries thus sustained. The court held that the ship was liable for the injury and awarded a decree accordingly. The claimant and mastér appealed from the order.

The first contention is that the admiralty court had no jurisdiction because of the fact that the injuries received by the appellee were received by him in the fall to the dock and that he was going to and had not yet reached the ship’s side at the time the gangplank fell.

It is settled by a recent decision of the Supreme Court (The Admiral Peoples, 295 U.S. 649 , 55 S.Ct. 885 , 79 L.Ed. 1633 ) that the gangplank is part of the ship when it is being used for the purpose of furnishing ingress…