Rocco Ferrigno, Libelant-Appellee v. Ocean Transport LTD., Respondent-Appellant-Appellee v. Pittston Stevedoring Corp., Respondent-Impleaded-Appellant, 309 F.2d 445, 2d Cir. (1962)

309 F.
2d 445
Rocco FERRIGNO, Libelant-Appellee,

v.
OCEAN TRANSPORT LTD., Respondent-Appellant-Appellee,
v.
PITTSTON STEVEDORING CORP., Respondent-ImpleadedAppellant.
No. 24.
Docket 27482.
United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued October 9, 1962.
Decided October 29, 1962.
Thomas H. Healey, of Monica & Feury, New York City (Joseph P. Feury,
of Monica & Feury, New York City, on the brief), for Pittston
Stevedoring Corp., respondent-impleaded-appellant.
James H. Reidy, of Kirlin, Campbell & Keating, New York City, for
Ocean Transport Ltd., respondent-appellant-appellee.
Before CLARK, MOORE, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
CLARK, Circuit Judge.
Ferrigno, an employee of Pittston Stevedoring Corp., was engaged in

discharging a cargo of lumber from the lower hold of Ocean Transport's vessel,
the S.S. Myriam III. While Ferrigno was descending to the hold, a rung on the
ladder he was using came loose and he fell six or seven feet to the top of the
cargo, thereby sustaining certain injuries. The court below found that the
defects in the ladder were due solely to Ocean Transport's negligence and that
neither Ferrigno nor Pittston, impleaded by Ocean, were contributorily
negligent or had knowledge of the dangerous condition. So it awarded Ferrigno
$7,407.00 for lost wages, pain, suffering, and disability, D. C.S.D.N.Y., 201
F.Supp. 173, at 179, and found that Pittston had not breached its implied
warranty of workmanship, 201 F.Supp. at 184. Pittston had, however, made a
contract with Wilford & McKay, Inc., the agent of the charterer with whom
Ocean had a charter party, in which Pittston had agreed to hold Wilford &
McKay harmless from liability for death or personal injury sustained during its
stevedoring operations. Although no similar provision was contained in the
charter party with Ocean, Judge Levet required Pittston to indemnify Ocean as a
third-party beneficiary under the clause in its contract with Wilford & McKay.
This ruling is being contested on this appeal.
2
We think this holding constitutes an improper extension of the third-party

beneficiary doctrine employed in Crumady v. The Joachim Hendrik Fisser, 358
U.S. 423, 79 S.Ct. 445, 3 L.Ed.2d 413, and Waterman S.S. Corp. v. Dugan &
McNamara, Inc., 364 U.S. 421, 81 S.Ct. 200, 5 L.Ed.2d 169, to allow recovery
over by the ship for breach of the implied warranty of workmanlike service by
the stevedore. We are not here dealing with a warranty of workmanlike service.
Of course, as we note, it would make no difference to recovery over against the
stevedoring company whether that warranty were explicit or implied. For that
warranty goes to the very heart of the stevedore-vessel relationship and is
established the moment the stevedore boards the vessel to perform his services.
See Crumady v. The Joachim Hendrik Fisser, supra, 358 U.S. 423, at 428-429,
79 S.Ct. at 448; Waterman S.S. Corp. v. Dugan & McNamara, Inc., supra, 364
U. S. 421, at 424, 81 S.Ct. at 202. In the case before us, however, we are
dealing with a hold-harmless clause, which is not an essential part of the
stevedore's undertaking. A ship cannot, therefore, rely on the same easy burden
of proof that is available to it when it claims indemnity on the ground that the
stevedore has breached its agreement to perform its services in a safe and
workmanlike manner. Here Ocean's burden of proving that it was a third-party
beneficiary under the hold-harmless clause was not satisfied. There was no
showing of any intent in the Wilford & McKay contract to grant absolution to
Ocean.
Further, public policy considerations, of the nature outlined in DeGioia v. U. S.

Lines Co., 2 Cir., 304 F.2d 421, at 426, suggest that Ocean should not be given
the benefit of the indemnity clause in question. In the DeGioia case we said:
"The function of the doctrine of unseaworthiness and the corollary doctrine of
indemnification is allocation of the losses caused by shipboard injuries to the
enterprise, and within the several segments of the enterprise, to the institution
or institutions most able to minimize the particular risk involved." Since
Pittston was found to have satisfied its warranty of workmanship, there is
nothing that it could have done in this case to minimize the risk, which, as the
trial court found, was the sole result of the shipowner's negligence. So shifting
the loss to the stevedore would seem to decrease the shipowner's incentive to
make his vessel safe.
Nothing in the cases relied upon by the district court is inconsistent with the
result we reach in this case. See Porello v. United States, 2 Cir., 153 F.2d 605,
affirmed in part and reversed in part sub nom., American Stevedores, Inc. v.
Porello, 330 U.S. 446, 67 S.Ct. 847, 91 L.Ed. 1011, on remand D.C.S.D.N.Y.,
94 F. Supp. 952; Shannon v. United States, 2 Cir., 235 F.2d 457; A/S J. Ludwig
Mowinckels Rederi v. Commercial Stevedoring Co., 2 Cir., 256 F.2d 227, cert.
dismissed Commercial Stevedoring Co. v. A/S J. Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi,
358 U.S. 801, 79 S.Ct. 9, 3 L.Ed.2d 49; Booth S.S. Co. v. Meier & Oelhaf Co.,
2 Cir., 262 F.2d 310. In Porello, this court interpreted an indemnity clause in a
contract between the stevedore and shipowner to require that the stevedore
alone bear the loss when both parties had been negligent. The Supreme Court
reversed on this point, indicating that it felt evidence should have been taken
regarding the parties' intent. On remand in the district court, however, no
evidence was submitted and Judge Kaufman concluded that the interpretation
of this court was the appropriate one. In Shannon, we held that a stevedore has
an obligation to remove a known defect or notify the shipowner of it. This
doctrine is obviously inapplicable where, as here, the stevedore had no
knowledge of the dangerous condition. A/S J. Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi
discussed why admiralty rules should apply to maritime contracts containing
indemnity agreements identical with that in Porello and reaffirmed the rule of
that case that indemnification under such an arrangement would be required
even if the indemnitee were also at fault. Booth S.S. Co. dealt with a situation
in which neither party to an unwritten contract to overhaul a ship's engines was
at fault. Judge Lumbard, writing for a unanimous court and stressing policy
considerations of the kind subsequently emphasized in DeGioia v. U. S. Lines
Co., supra, 2 Cir., 304 F.2d 421, held the contractor liable under an implied
warranty of workmanlike service because of its better position, as supplier of
the equipment which caused the accident, to diminish the risk.
The decree requiring Pittston to indemnify Ocean is reversed for entry of a

decree in its favor.

Rocco Ferrigno, Libelant-Appellee v. Ocean Transport LTD., Respondent-Appellant-Appellee v. Pittston Stevedoring Corp., Respondent-Impleaded-Appellant, 309 F.2d 445, 2d Cir. (1962)

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309 F.

Rocco FERRIGNO, Libelant-Appellee,

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Ferrigno, an employee of Pittston Stevedoring Corp., was engaged in

We think this holding constitutes an improper extension of the third-party

Further, public policy considerations, of the nature outlined in DeGioia v. U. S.

The decree requiring Pittston to indemnify Ocean is reversed for entry of a

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