Livingston v. Kodiak Packing Co.

The Court. Action to recover damages for a personal injury alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff in consequence of negligence of defendant. Trial by jury. Verdict in favor of plaintiff, assessing damages at twelve thousand five hundred dollars, on which judgment was rendered. Appeal by defendant from the judgment, and from an order denying a new trial.

In October, 1891, the defendant was owner of the steamship Haytien Republic, then engaged in carrying passengers and freight from San Francisco to various northern Pacific ports in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, and thence back to San Francisco; and for that purpose was supplied by defendant with the ordinary complement of officers, sailors, and servants. G. W. Brown was captain, George W. David, mate, and the plaintiff a servant in the steward’s department, whose principal duty it was to serve as waiter at the officers’ table, but also to perform such other services as ordered by the steward.

[261]At the time of the accident in which plaintiff was injured, October 22, 1891, the ship was moored at the wharf in Departure bay, where it was taking in a cargo, , or partial cargo, of coal. The shippers of the coal were moving it to the ship, and dumping it into a hatchway, by means and appliances of their own, which consisted of a tramway, or bridge, extending from the coal-bunlcers on the wharf to the hatchway on the ship. Upon this bridge was laid a railroad track for small coal-cars. No part of the bridge rested upon the ship. That end of it from which the coal was dumped into the hatchway was suspended by chains attached to trestlework and machinery on the wharf, by which it could be raised or lowered so as to adapt it to the varying height of the ship’s deck, the part thus raised and lowered being attached to the main part on the wharf by hinges. The hatchway being used at the time of the accident is about four and a half feet square, and the end of the bridge extended nearly to the middle of it. The width of the bridge being about five and a half feet, the sides of it projected about six inches beyond the sides of the hatchway. Mr. David, the mate, was superintending the receiving of the coal and the “trimming” of it iti the hold of the ship, but had nothing to do with it until it was dumped from the cars into the hatchway. About 5:30 o’clock, p. m., the steward ordered plaintiff to call the officers to dinner, and he went upon deck and to the captain’s room for that purpose, but not finding the captain on the ship, he was ordered to go and look for him upon the wharf. Going from the ship to the wharf he passed over the railroad bridge then being used by the coal shippers, and returned to the ship the same way. In returning he stepped down from the side of the bridge to the deck, at a point about five feet from the end of the bridge; then moved two steps in a direction parallel with the side of the bridge and towards the end of it. which projected over the hatchway, and in attempting to make another step “twisted ” his ankle, and fell head foremost into the hatchway, from which he was