The Montezuma

The libel,.seeking to recover damages for personal injuries, was dismissed below, because it appeared that the appellant was injured while on the dock immediately after he had put a wire cable over a spile to hold the vessel to the dock preparatory to loading her. While standing about eight feet away, on the wharf, through the negligence of a deckhand operating a winch aboard the vessel, in slacking the cable it was caused to loosen and fly up, striking the appellant in the leg. The District Court ruled, on the exceptions filed to the libel, that it was without jurisdiction in admiralty to…