U.S. Supreme Court THE ARIZONA v. ANELICH, 298 U.S. 110 (1936)

[Page 298 U.S. 110, 121]

380, 38 S.Ct. 501; Carlisle Packing Co. v. Sandanger, 259 U.S. 255, 259, 42 S.Ct. 475; Pacific Steamship Co. v. Peterson, supra, 278 U.S. 130, 134, 49 S.Ct. 75; Lindgren v. United States, supra.

In declaring in The Osceola, without qualification as to the assumption of risk, that the owner and vessel were liable to indemnify seamen for injuries caused by unseaworthiness of the vessel, and that unseaworthiness embraced defective appliances appurtenant to the ship, this Court adopted the pronouncements of many earlier cases in admiralty in which the rule was applied or recognized. [Footnote 2] It was definitely applied by this Court in Carlisle Packing Co. v. Sandanger, supra; cf. Plamals v. S. S. Pinar Del Rio, 277 U.S. 151, 155, 48 S.Ct. 457.

[Page 298 U.S. 110, 124]

reached generally by the lower federal courts, although not with entire unanimity. [Footnote 3]

Affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 In The Osceola, , 23 S.Ct. 483, the Court did not answer the certified question, whether the master is a fellow servant, since it concluded that in any event the owners were not liable generally for injuries resulting from negligence unless they were occasioned by unseaworthiness or defect in appliances appurtenant to the ship.

Footnote 2 The seaman's right of indemnity for injuries caused by defective appliances or unseaworthiness seems to have been a development from his privilege to abandon a vessel improperly fitted out. The privilege was recognized in Dixon v. The Cyrus, Fed.Cas.No.3,930, 2 Pet.Adm. 407 (D.C.Pa ., 1789), where it was held that the law will imply an engagement to the mariners that 'the ship shall be furnished with all the necessary and customary requisites for navigation, or, as the term is, shall be found seaworthy.' This case was relied on in several early cases recognizing the seaman's right to consequential damages for injuries resulting from faulty equipment. Halverson v. Nisen, Fed.Cas.No.5,970, 3 Sawy. 562; The Noddleburn (D.C.) 28 F. 855, 856; The Lizzie Frank (D.C.) 31 F. 477; and see The Wenonah, Fed.Cas.No.17,412, 1 Hask. 606. The rule that unseaworthiness releases the seaman from his contract is of uncertain origin, but it is closely related to the master's obligation to owner and shipper that the vessel be well equipped and ballasted. See Marine Ordinances of Louis XIV, Book II, art. VIII, Moloy, De Jure Maritimo et Navali (7th Ed. 1722) p. 223. The seaman's right of indemnity was sustained in The City of Alexandria (D.C.) 17 F. 390; The Edith Godden (D. C.) 23 F. 43; Olson v. Flavel (D.C.) 34 F. 477; The A. Heaton (C.C.) 43 F. 592; The Frank and Willie (D.C.) 45 F. 494; The Julia Fowler (D.C.) 49 F. 277. A seaman was denied recovery for injuries in Couch v. Steele (1853) 3 El. & Bl. 402, on the ground that the owner owed to seamen no duty to make the vessel seaworthy. This case was disapproved in The Noddleburn, supra, 28 F. 855, 857, which allowed recovery for an injury due to defective rigging. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, 39-40 Vict. ch. 80, 5, provided that there should be imported into every contract of service between the owner of the vessel and the seamen on board an implied obligation 'that the owner of the ship and the master, and every agent charged with the loading of the ship or the preparing thereof for sea or the sending thereof to sea shall use all reasonable means to insure the seaworthiness of the ship for the voyage at the time when the voyage commences and to keep her in a seaworthy condition for the voyage during the same.' See Hedley v. Pinkney & Sons S.S. Co. (1894) A.C. 222, strictly construing this statute.

Footnote 3 Denying the defense: Grimberg v. Admiral Oriental S.S. Line (D.C.) 300 F. 619; United States S.B.E.F. Corp. v. O'Shea, 55 App.D.C. 300, 5 F.( 2d) 123; Coast S.S. Co. v. Brady (C.C.A.) 8 F.(2d) 16; Zinnel v. United States S.B.E.F. Corp. (C.C.A.) 10 F.(2d) 47; Howarth v. United States S.B. E.F. Corp. (C.C.A.) 24 F.(2d) 374; Masjulis v. United States S.B.E.F. Corp . (C.C.A.) 31 F.(2d) 284; States S.S. Co. v. Berglann (C.C.A.) 41 F.(2d) 456; United States v. Boykin (C.C.A.) 49 F.(2d) 762; Ives v. United States ( C.C.A.) 58 F.(2d) 201; Pittsburgh S.S. Co. v. Palo (C.C.A.) 64 F.(2d) 198; Hanson v. Luckenbach S.S. Co. (C.C.A.) 65 F.(2d) 457; The New Berne (C.C.A .) 80 F.(2d) 244. Contra: The Ipswich (D.C.) 46 F.(2d) 136; Stevens v. R. O'Brien Co. (C.C.A.) 62 F.(2d) 632.