Lead Opinion
This admiralty appeal urges upon us the contention that the New Jersey Wrongful Death Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1, is broad enough to encompass an action for death based upon a breach of the warranty of seaworthiness.
Carl E. Skovgaard met his death by suffocation and shock when he slipped and fell into a tank of heated coconut oil aboard the M/V Tungus. On December 5, 1952, the Tungus, with a cargo of
The deceased Skovgaard was a maintenance foreman of El Dorado. He was called from his home shortly after the leak developed to assist in repairing the pump. He arrived on board around 1:25 a. m. As-Skovgaard walked aft of the port tank, he stepped on the hatch beams and then attempted to step onto the top of the tank. He slipped on the spill and fell to his death in the hot oil.
The suit was brought by Olga Skovgaard, administratrix of the estate of the deceased. Her libel pleads principally two causes of action, one predicated on unseaworthiness, the other on negligence. Both of these causes of action were based upon the New Jersey Wrongful Death Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1. After trial was held, the district court dismissed the libel, deciding that an action for death by unseaworthiness did not lie in the general maritime law, and as to the negligence question, that the vessel owed no duty to the deceased to clean up the oil spill. D.C.N.J.1956,
It is an established principle of maritime law that-in the absence of statute there is no remedy for wrongful death. The Harrisburg, 1886,
It follows that whatever right appellant has in seeking redress for the death of Skovgaard must be based upon the New Jersey Wrongful Death Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1, which reads as follows:
“When the death of a person is caused by a wrongful act, neglect or . default, such as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the person injured to maintain an action for damages resulting from the injury, the person who would have been liable in damages for the injury if death had not ensued shall be liable in an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured and although the death was caused under circumstances amounting in law to a crime.”
Appellant urges that unseaworthiness is a “wrongful act, neglect or default” within the meaning of the New Jersey Act.
In the determination of whether unseaworthiness is such a “wrongful act, neglect or default” as will admit of recovery, we must look to the construction given to the Act by the New Jersey courts. They have held that the Act is in the highest sense remedial, and is entitled to a liberal construction, for its aim was to abolish a harsh and technical rule of the common law. Haggerty v. Central Railroad Co., 1865,
The nature of the conduct which will create liability under the New Jersey statute is of crucial importance. The legislature describes it as “wrongful act, neglect or default.” It is presumed that the legislature did not employ useless verbiage and that each word has independent meaning. Ford Motor Co. v. New Jersey Department of Labor and Industry, 1950,
It is urged that since unseaworthiness is spoken of as a species of liability without fault, it cannot be a “wrongful act, neglect or default” within the meaning of the statute. However, the characterization of unseaworthiness as liability without fault is dangerously deceptive. For urgent and sound reasons of public policy, the law has imposed the absolute duty upon the shipowner to provide a seaworthy vessel, and liability results only as a consequence of the breach of that duty. If “fault” means negligence alone, of course no fault is required, and to that extent only, the phrase “liability without fault” is accurate. But to say that one who breaches a duty is without fault is a logical as well as a legal incongruity.
The seaman possesses the legal right of a seaworthy ship. Whenever this legal right is infringed and harm results by reason of the ship being unseaworthy, a “wrong” occurs, whether it be of omission or commission. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has defined “wrongful act” as “any act which in the ordinary course will infringe upon the rights of another to his damage, except it be done in the exercise of an equal or superior right.” Louis Schlesinger Co. v. Rice, 1950,
If it be said that the New Jersey act provides redress for tortious conduct alone, we answer that providing an un-seaworthy ship is a tort. As was said in Strika v. Netherlands Ministry of Traffic, 2 Cir., 1950,
“It would follow from that analysis that the breach of the ‘obligation’ to furnish a seaworthy ship is a tort; and that is a result consonant with the historical attitude towards breaches of warranty, which until 1778 had to be sued in tort, and which may still be so treated if the distinction is important.”
The New York Court of Appeals has decided in a food poisoning case that the breach of the warranty of fitness for human consumption, imposed by law upon considerations similar to the imposition of the warranty of unseaworthiness, is a “wrongful act, neglect, or default” within the New York wrongful death statute. Greco v. S. S. Kresge Co., 1938,
The New Jersey statute further refers to the “wrongful act, neglect, or default” as one “such as would, if death had not
We hold that the failure to provide a seaworthy vessel in the case before us is such “wrongful act, neglect or default” as will allow recovery under the New Jersey wrongful death statute.
The same conclusion was reached by Judge Learned Hand in his dissenting opinion
“ * * * Is a vessel owner liable for a seaman’s — or a longshoreman’s —death within the territorial waters of a state, when it is caused by the unseaworthiness of the vessel? / have no doubt that. the death was owing to the respondent’s ‘wrongful act, neglect or default,’ as the New ' Jersey Act uses those words * [Emphasis supplied.]
The right thus created by the New Jersey statute may be enforced in a court of admiralty, for it is certainly “not hostile to the characteristic features of the maritime law or inconsistent with federal legislation.” Just v. Chambers,
In Lee v. Pure Oil Co., 6 Cir., 1955,
To the extent that Graham v. A. Lusi, Limited, 5 Cir., 1953,
As to the negligence question, the holding of the district court that no duty devolved upon the vessel Tungus to clean up the oil spill was predicated upon a finding of fact that the operation of repairing the pump was conducted by El Dorado, and that no evidence indicated that Tungus personnel either supervised or controlled the discharge of the oil.
While it may be true that El Dorado supervised the pump repair operation, this would hardly lessen the duty of the vessel to provide a reasonably safe place to work, especially since El Dorado’s supervision was not so complete as to exclude crew members from the area. In fact, it was the crew which first discovered the oil leakage and adopted temporary
The assimilation by Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 1946,
The duty of providing Skovgaard with a reasonably safe place to work, Hawn v. Pope & Talbot, Inc., 3 Cir., 1952,
While the New Jersey wrongful death statute adopts the maritime standard of care, it is silent as to available defenses. It is not for us in the first instance, however, but rather for the trier of fact, to determine whether the vessel’s duty was breached and to decide factually what defenses, if any, might be available to the respondent. The question of the unseaworthiness of the vessel is likewise one which should be determined initially by the district court.
The judgment of the district court dismissing the libel will be reversed, and the cause will be remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. The judgment of the district court also dismissed the impleading petition as a consequence of the dismissal of the libel. This will also be reversed inasmuch as the liability of the impleaded defendant cannot be determined until there has been a full and adequate development of the facts.
Notes
. It is interesting to note that this court has several times held in the determination of the question of laches in an action for personal injuries based upon unseaworthiness that the analogous statute of limitations to be applied is the Pennsylvania two-year statute which uses language substantially similar to the New Jersey Wrongful Death Act. The time limitation is imposed in actions for injury “wrongfully done to the person.” Act of June 24, 1895, P.D. 236, § 2, 12 Purdon’s Pa.Stat.Ann. § 34. See Kane v. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 3 Cir., 1951,
. The disposition by the majority rendered a decision on this issue unnecessary.
Dissenting Opinion
join (dissenting).
In one aspect the present libel pictures the shipboard death of libellant’s decedent within the state of New Jersey as having resulted, without negligence on the part of the respondent shipowner, from an unseaworthy condition of the vessel. This court now holds that New Jersey, in its Wrongful Death Act, has made a non negligent shipowner liable
The division of the court on this point seems best explained by starting with certain premises and underlying concepts upon which all of us agree. A federal court is hero asked to enforce a cause of action, the existence and dimensions of which are determined solely by the law and policy of New Jersey. True, the United States District Court which heard this case was sitting “in admiralty”. But for present purposes this is significant only in that the practice properly followed in that forum is admiralty practice. Thus, the proper form of complaint in this case was a libel in the admiralty style. The shipowners could be reached by attaching the vessel in the classic admiralty manner. But beyond such matters of legal administration, the substantive concepts of admiralty had no effect as law in defining the claim. State law and it alone performed that function.
The Supreme Court has recently made an explicit and authoritative statement of what a district court does in a situation like this:
“The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky heard this suit sitting in admiralty. * * * The District Court adopted and enforced the obligatio created by the State of Kentucky not because it sits in Kentucky and responds to the desirability of uniformity in the administration of justice within that State. In the absence of congressional action, the court adopted and enforced the obli-gatio created by Kentucky as it would one originating in any foreign jurisdiction. * * * And it was bound to enforce it as it found it, * * * [except for] procedural niceties. * * * ”1
For present purposes the most important part of this exposition is the concluding sentence: “it [the federal admiralty court] was bound to enforce it [the state obligatio] as it found it. * * * ”
Thus, to the extent that state policy has led the state legislature to give dependents rights against one who has caused the death of their provider within the state, a federal court will carry out that policy. Ordinarily the federal court entertains the state created wrongful death claim on its law side. But where the fatal injury has occurred on navigable water, it is accepted practice to entertain the suit on the admiralty side. But, in either event, it is the state law, as defined and construed in the light of state policy, which the federal court must apply.
It is believed that all members of this court accept the above outlined legal theory of what a federal court does and how it should approach its task in a case like this. However, we who dissent think the majority has disposed of this case as if admiralty policies and concepts developed by federal courts in maritime causes were controlling when there is nothing to show that New Jersey has adopted or would adopt these federal maritime concepts of liability to define rights it has created as part of its common law jurisprudence.
The New Jersey Wrongful Death Act, like most prototypes of Lord Campbell’s Act, gives dependents a right to recover for death caused by the “wrongful act, neglect or default” of another. Historically, neither the common law nor any statute of New Jersey seems ever to have utilized the circumstance of unseaworthiness as a basis of imposed liability for non-negligent personal injury. To reach this court’s result it is necessary to attribute to New Jersey a purpose to make a novel piecemeal borrowing of maritime concepts.
We call this borrowing novel and piecemeal advisely. It has long been a peculiar and characteristic feature of admiralty law that a ship is responsible to indemnify members of its company for injuries caused by the unseaworthiness of the vessel.
Moreover, although the majority do not face the problem here, the question must arise whether under the prevailing analysis New Jersey accepts the unseaworthiness concept alone in defining the statutory rights it has created, or whether other admiralty doctrines, notably that of comparative negligence, are also part of the state created right. This court and others have from time to time rejected the idea that state wrongful death causes incorporate the admiralty comparative negligence concept.
Thus, even if the New Jersey cases provided no guide for the interpretation of the Wrongful Death Act in situations of this kind the conclusion reached by the majority would seem illogical and for that reason unwarranted. We are the more confident of this view since several federal and state courts interpreting death statutes of other states have been unable to find any satisfactory rationale for the use of the unseaworthiness concept in defining the causes of action which these state statutes have created.
But we think the New Jersey cases are instructive and helpful. They show rather clearly the way in which the New Jersey courts understand their Wrongful Death Act. As a general proposition, common law concepts of tort, with negligence a prerequisite to recovery, are read into the New Jersey statute by the courts of that state. If a fatal accident occurs on land or non-navigable water within New Jersey, or if anyone other than the shipowner is sued for a fatal accident on a ship in navigable New Jersey water, there is no question that New Jersey policy and law require a showing of lack of due care to establish a claim under the Wrongful Death Act.
In Santamaria v. Lamport & Holt Line, Ltd., E. & A. 1938,
We think it clear that in administering their Wrongful Death Act, whether the injury has been on land or water and whether the defendant has been a shipowner or anyone else, the New Jersey courts have consistently defined and confined liability within common law concepts of negligent or intentional wrong. For a federal court to say now that the law of New Jersey is otherwise is to rule in derogation of the whole history of New Jersey litigation interpreting a New Jersey statute as based on common law concepts.
Finding no New Jersey cases helpful, the majority point to decisions of several other state courts holding that death caused by breach of warranty of quality of goods may be actionable under their death statutes.
Finally, the majority find support for their view in the fact that the New Jersey statute in terms comprehends fatal injury “such as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the person injured to maintain an action for damages resulting from the injury”. This provision is present in almost all death statutes of this type and has been universally considered to be a limiting concept. See Prosser, Torts, § 105 (2d ed. 1955). The liability defining part of the statute is. found in the words “wrongful act, neglect or default”. The limiting words-which follow serve only to make sure-that defenses which would have been, available against the decedent, had he lived, shall be available against the-wrongful death claim. We think these limiting words have no bearing upon our present problem whether a maritime type, of liability without fault is created by the preceding phrase, “wrongful act, neglect or default”.
For the foregoing reasons we think the-New Jersey law provides no cause of action for death resulting from unseaworthiness without negligence. Judge Maris and Judge Kalodner would go farther and say that the result of the majority would be incorrect even if New Jersey did incorporate the unseaworthiness concept of admiralty. In this case-the district court found as a fact that the-decedent knew of the presence of the oil slick which caused him to slip and fall' to his death. Indeed, the record shows, beyond question that this condition was. apparent and obvious. In addition, decedent boarded the ship to repair the very defective valve which had caused the oil to leak and spread over the deck. In-, these circumstances Judge Maris and'. Judge Kalodner would hold, relying upon Bruszewski v. Isthmian SS. Co., 3 Cir., 1947,
This case has a second aspect. The libellant undertook to prove that, quite apart from unseaworthiness, the shipowner was responsible for actionable negligence on the part of the ship’s personnel in not providing the decedent with a reasonably safe place to work. On the evidence and the findings we think the defendant was entitled to judgment on this branch of the case.
Here again the majority seem to apply federal admiralty concepts to define a state created death claim. But the question to be decided is the extent of the duty which New Jersey law imposes upon the possessor of a place to provide a safe place to work for employees of independent contractors who entered the place as business invitees. The fact that the place in this case is a ship is incidental and irrelevant for present purposes.
We have already pointed out that in this case it has been established as a fact that the dangerous condition was obvious and actually known to the decedent. In Newbury v. American Stores Co., 1935,
In these circumstances it is immaterial whether admiralty law, in cases to which it is applicable, may impose a more stringent duty. New Jersey tort principles are controlling here, and under them, on the admitted facts, the person in possession of the place of injury was not responsible for death caused by a condition of which the invitee was fully cognizant.
In our view the judgment below should be affirmed.
. Levison v. Deupree, 1952,
. The Osceola, 1903,
. See Tetreault, Seamen, Seaworthiness and the Rights of Harbor Workers, 1954, 39 Corn.L.Q. 381, 408.
. Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 1946,
. Curtis v. A. Garcia Y. Cia., Ltda., 3 Cir., 1957,
. Lee v. Pure Oil Co., 6 Cir., 1955,
. E. g., Stewart v. Norton, 1951,
. Greco v. S. S. Kresge Co., 1938,
. Torts, Restatement, §§ 340, 343; Ambrose v. Moffat Coal Co., 1948,
