Seaman Injured While Tripping Over A Plastic Packing Strap That Fell From A Carton To The Deck Recovers For Unseaworthiness Because A Shipowners Warranty Of Seaworthiness Extends To Its Stores And Their Defective Packaging.
EDUARDO B. BARLAS, Plaintiff, - against - UNITED STATES OFAMERICA, Defendant.
01 Civ. 6420 (DC)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OFNEW YORK
2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14298
August 18, 2003, Decided
August 18, 2003, Filed
DISPOSITION: Court found defendant liable for plaintiff's injuries and awarded damages.
PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff seaman was injured when he tripped on a plastic packing strap on the deck of a ship owned by defendant United States. He filed suit and the U.S. conceded to jurisdiction under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C.S. §§ 741-52. The case was tried to the court. At trial, the seaman withdrew his claim based upon negligence under the Jones Act, and proceeded solely with a claim of unseaworthiness under the general maritime law.
OVERVIEW: The seaman's feet became entangled in the strap while he was carrying two heavy boxes of canned goods, and the fall injured his ankle, knee, and lower back. He contended that dual defects rendered the ship "unseaworthy:" the plastic strap was inadequate because it must have slipped off a carton, uncut, and the deck was unsafe because it contained a nearly invisible entanglement hazard. In the peculiar world of the general maritime law and the "unusual liability" that was unseaworthiness, the court concluded that the fallen packing strap rendered the ship "unseaworthy" and the U.S. was liable in tort to the seaman for his injuries. The warranty of seaworthiness extended both to ships' stores and to their defective packaging. Notwithstanding the short time that the strap lay on the deck, its presence was both the result and the cause of a defect that caused the seaman's injuries. The presence of the uncut strap on the ship's deck was the result of a defect -- coming loose from its carton -- and rendered the deck defective, or temporarily unsafe, and unfit for the operation of unloading stores.
OUTCOME: Judgment was to be entered in favor of the seaman against the U.S.
