133 N.E. 371 | NY | 1921
Claimant was employed in the care and management of a hydro-aeroplane, which was moored in navigable waters at Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn. The plane traveled between Brooklyn, New York, and Miami, Florida. While moored in these navigable waters, it began to drag anchor and drift toward the beach, where it was in danger of being wrecked. Claimant waded into the water to turn the plane about, and was struck by the propeller. The question to be determined is whether he was injured by a vessel. If he was, the jurisdiction of the admiralty excludes the jurisdiction of the commission (Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart,
We think the craft, though new, is subject, while afloat, to the tribunals of the sea. Vessels in navigable waters are within the jurisdiction of the admiralty. Any structure used, or capable of being used, for transportation upon water, is a vessel (U.S. Compiled Statutes, title 1, ch. 1, sec. 3; Chas. Barnes Co. v.One Dredge Boat, 169 Fed. Rep. 895). All that remains is to ascertain the uses and capacities of the structure to be classified. The conclusion might be more dubious if the word "vessel" had been interpreted grudgingly and narrowly. The fact is that it has been interpreted liberally and broadly. It includes a canal boat drawn by horses (The Robert W. Parsons,
The conclusion to which we are thus led is in accordance with the practice of the government, so far as practice has developed. The treasury department of the United States requires seaplanes or hydroplanes to be registered as vessels. The same department has held that in navigating the water they are subject to the rules of the road. It has also held them to be vessels within the meaning of the Tariff Law (Act of October 3, 1913, sec. 4-J, subds. 5 and 6; Treasury Decision No. 36156). Rulings not dissimilar have been made by the department of commerce. A libel against a hydro-aeroplane has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and process issued thereon (American Bar Assn., 1921, Report of the Special Committee on the Law of Aviation, pp. 7, 24). *120
The order of the Appellate Division and the award of the commission should be reversed, and the claim dismissed, with costs against the Industrial Commission in the Appellate Division and in this court.
HISCOCK, Ch. J., HOGAN, POUND, McLAUGHLIN, CRANE and ANDREWS, JJ., concur.
Ordered accordingly.