Miranda

Libelant, a member of a longshore gang, was working in the hold of a vessel. The gang was stowing pipe for shipment to Saudi Arabia. A section of pipe, when laid down, started to roll. All of the gang escaped injury except libelant.

The claim was made that the ship was unseaworthy, because on a list at the time of the accident.

There was no negligence here, indeed the situation was not unusual; ships are bound to list as they are loaded and unloaded. Nevertheless, I feel the question whether (under the modern decisions) unseaworthiness existed, is closer than counsel appears ready to concede. However, the question has never been ruled, and I don’t think that I as a trial judge should take so radical a step.

There are several considerations that specially influence me: libelant is not a sailor, and thus not free to criticize his working conditions, the consideration that was stressed by Judge Augustus Hand. The H. A. Scandrett, 2 Cir., 87 F.2d 708 . As a longshoreman, libelant and his gang were free (1) 1 to lay the pipe down in a safer place; (2) to call for correction of the danger — as the gang did after the accident; (3) to quit work, so long as the danger existed. Lastly,…