Murphy v. Furness-Withy & Co.

The following facts are substantially uncontested: The plaintiff, a stevedore of seven years experience, employed by the Bay State Stevedoring Company in discharging the cargo of a steamship owned by the Warren Line, about five o’clock in the afternoon left the hold where he had worked during the day of January 3, 1924, by an iron ladder located in the center of the hatch. He saw that the ladder then was in perfect condition. He returned to work about eight o’clock in the morning of January 4, and, facing the ladder, stepped over the coaming of the hatch with his feet on the second rung and…