BARRY JAMES PASHBY, APPELLANT,
v.
UNIVERSAL DREDGING CORPORATION, AND ANCHOR BARGE NO. 10, OFFICIAL NO. 554497, APPELLEES

9th Cir. | 1979-12-03
Nos. 77-1442, 77-1522
608 F.2d 1312 United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1979)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the nature of the assault raised factual questions not suitable for summary judgment.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant Pashby was assaulted by a fellow deckhand, Rodriguez, with an eye bolt after an earlier reprimand. Pashby sued under the Jones Act for negli…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM:

PER CURIAM:

Appellant Pashby was employed by ap-pellee Universal Dredging Corporation as a deckmate. On October 5, 1973, he was working on Anchor Barge No. 10. Appellant had occasion that morning to reprimand a deckhand, one Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez took exception to the rebuke and a brief scuffle ensued. Forty-five minutes later, Mr. Rodriguez approached appellant from the rear without warning and assaulted and battered him with an 18 inch eye bolt, causing head, leg and hand injuries.

Appellant brought this suit under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, charging negligence and breach of the duty of seaworthiness. The district court awarded summary judgment to the appellees, prompting this appeal by Mr. Pashby.

Summary judgment is properly awarded only when no genuine issue of material fact remains after the facts have been examined in a light most favorable to the party opposing the summary judgment motion. Santos v. Scindia Steam Navigation Co., 598 F. 2d 480, 483 (9th Cir. 1979); Blake v. City of Los Angeles, 595 F. 2d 1367, 1377 (9th Cir. 1979).

A vessel may be unseaworthy because of “defective” crew members. Boudoin v. Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., 348 U.S. 336, 339, 75 S.Ct. 382, 99 L.Ed. 354 (1955); Smith v. American Mail Line, Ltd., 525 F. 2d 1148, 1150 (9th Cir. 1975). A seaman must be reasonably fit; he must be equal in disposition to the ordinary men of that profession. Calcagni v. Hudson Waterways Corp., 603 F. 2d 1049, 1051 (2d Cir. 1979); Claborn v. Star Fish & Oyster Co., 578 F. 2d 983, 985 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 936, 99 S.Ct. 1281, 59 L.Ed.2d 494 (1979); Harbin v. Interlake Steamship Co., 570 F. 2d 99, 103 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 437 U.S. 905, 98 S.Ct. 3091, 57 L.Ed.2d 1135 (1978); Kirsch v. United States, 450 F. 2d 326, 327 (9th Cir. 1971); Stechcon v. United States, 439 F. 2d 792, 793-94 (9th Cir. 1971); Boorus v. West Coast Trans-Oceanic Steam ship Line, 299 F. 2d 893, 895-96 (9th Cir. 1962) .

The crucial and often cited questions were formulated in Boudoin, supra, 348 U.S. at 340, 75 S.Ct. at 385: “Was the assault within the usual and customary standards of the calling? Or is it a case of a seaman with a wicked disposition, a propensity to evil conduct, a savage and vicious nature?” An attack with a dangerous weapon has frequently been found to be evidence of a wicked and dangerous disposition. Calcagni v. Hudson Waterways Corp., supra; Claborn v. Star Fish & Oyster Co., supra, at 986; Clevenger v. Star Fish & Oyster Co., 325 F. 2d 397, 401-02 (5th Cir. 1963) . The Claborn court went so far as to find that such an attack established unseaworthiness as a matter of law.

The nature of the assault here raises factual questions which are not properly resolved on a summary judgment motion. The judgment below is reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited (15 total)

View all 15 cited authorities →

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw