Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. v. Aderhold

The parties will be referred to according to their position in the trial court.

Plaintiff, formerly.a seaman on defendant’s tanker, the SS SOCONA, filed two causes of action in this suit: first, for maintenance and cure; second, for damages caused by a fall from a shelf on the shelter deck. He contends that the shelf was an unsafe-place to work; that it was negligence to send him upon this shelf with this ship rolling; that it was negligence to have loose fittings stored on the shelf, and that it was negligence to allow a “gob of grease” upon which he slipped to remain on the shelf. The jury…