Hazel Swain, Administratrix of the Estate of Otho Swain, Deceased v. Mississippi Valley Barge Line Company

Appellant’s decedent, Otho Swain, worked as a deck hand aboard the vessel of defendant-appellee. On January 23, 1948, the vessel was tied up at a lock in the Ohio River. At 5:20 p.m. the same day, Swain was observed boarding-her. There was evidence that the ship’s cook reported to the captain that Swain was argumentative and intoxicated. The captain himself ate dinner with Swain and conversed with him. Pie testified that he smelled liquor on decedent’s, breath and observed him, in the words-of the district court, “under the influence of alcohol to a slight degree.” Decedent Swain was last…