Ford v. United Fruit Co.

BOWEN, District Judge.

Appellant, Earl David Ford, on April 28, 1945, was employed as a messman and member of the crew of the merchant vessel S.S. Sea Perch owned and operated by the United States, with United Fruit Company assisting in the operation. On that date the vessel was at Esperitos Santos, New Hebrides, embarking a large number of troops, and while appellant was sitting on the ship’s rail facing outboard, watching the loading operations, he was accidentally “bumped” by one of two seamen engaged in innocent “horseplay” in the passageway behind the railing and fell to the dock below…