Luckenbach Overseas Corporation and Isthmian Lines, Inc. v. Joseph Charles Usner

SIMPSON, Circuit Judge:

This is an interlocutory appeal from an order denying appellants’ motion for summary judgment on a claim based on negligence and unseaworthiness by a longshoreman against appellants as owner and charterer of the S./S EDGAR F. LUCKENBACH. The denial of the motion turned upon a controlling question of law as to which there was substantial ground for difference of opinion, i. e., the validity of the doctrine of operational negligence as a defense to an unseaworthiness action. The district judge certified the question as one appropriate for interlocutory appeal under Title…