Nature of the Case
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Facts
P was employed as an oiler in D's engine room. It was his duty while the vessel was underway to touch with his finger, at intervals of twenty minutes, a bearing of the propeller shaft, in order to ascertain whether it was overheating and in need of additional lubrication. Directly in front of the bearing, as he approached it, was an iron step, located about one foot above the engine room floor and bolted to the bedplate which supported the bearing. P testified that the step was braced on its underside by a bracket or strut and that about two or three weeks before the accident he had observed that the bracket was loose and out of place and had reported the fact to a superior officer. P testified that in order to reach the bearing it was necessary for him to stand with his right foot upon the step with his left advanced and placed upon the bedplate, and with his left hand holding, for support, the upper edge of an adjacent vertical slush pan; that, standing in this position, he placed his right hand in a hole extending downward through the bearing cap a distance of eight or ten inches, where he touched the shaft and the adjoining bearing to discover whether they were overheated and to inspect the oil which stuck to his fingers and which, if discolored, would indicate that the journal was beginning to gripe because of excessive friction. As he stepped down his left foot struck the loose bracket, which had projected beyond the edge of the step, causing him to fall and suffer the injuries complained of. The jury could have found that it was possible for P to have reached the bearing while standing on the floor, without the use of the defective step, by seizing with his right hand a grab iron located on a nearby column and reaching with his left hand to touch the left end of the bearing, which extended through the bedplate; that this was the usual and only appropriate way to examine the bearing, and that P had been seen to reach it in that manner. There was also testimony that other oilers had touched the bearing without using the step while standing on the floor, with their right hand grasping the upper edge of the vertical crank-pit guard, which was adjacent on the right and nearer to the bearing than the grab iron. There was evidence of the relative localities of the several parts of the structure mentioned and of the distances between them, indicating that P could have reached the bearing, either at its left end or through the hole in the bearing cap, while standing on the engine room floor and without using the step. The court charged generally 'that the ship owner is under a duty to furnish the seaman with a safe place in which to work' and 'There is no contributory negligence or assumption of risk on the part of a plaintiff in so far as the defendant fails in these duties.' The court refused to allow an instruction that P had assumed the risk of injury. P got the verdict and it was affirmed on appeal. D appealed.
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