Robert Ortiz v. Grace Line, Inc.

This is an appeal from a jury verdict in a personal injury action brought for negligence under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, and unseaworthiness. Ortiz, a seaman on defendant’s ship, injured his back when he fell into a bilge while carrying out orders of the Junior Engineer. Then he aggravated this injury on a subsequent voyage aboard the same ship. His claims were not differentiated in either the complaint or the charge or the answers to interrogatories. Under present-day law, negligence and unseaworthiness may well be only fair alternatives on the record as presented, with both available…