Lawson v. Daniel Ripley & Co.

The steamship Cody, owned by the United States Shipping Board, while anchored at the port of Houston in navigable waters, was being loaded with cotton by the appellee, a private corporation, as a Steve-. dore, and appellant, as its employee, was engaged in placing the cotton in the hold of the vessel under the hatchways. In this action he sought damages as at common law for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by him as a result of the appellee’s negligence in permitting the hatches above him, which he charged were too short to be safe and not properly fastened, to fall down upon…