Strachan Shipping Company v. Koninklyke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maalschappy, N.V.

GEWIN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents a case of first impression for this Court. The problem to be resolved is whether a shipowner is entitled to recover from the stevedore, a third party defendant, attorneys’ fees and expenses for defending a suit by an injured longshoreman where the jury made the following findings in answer to specific interrogatories propounded by the court: (a) the shipowner was blameless, was not guilty of negligence and the ship was not unseaworthy; (b) the proximate cause of the injury was the stevedore’s failure to perform its duties in a safe and workmanlike…