Henry P. Bueno v. United States of America R. W. Little Co., Inc., a California Corporation and San Diego Sandblasting, Inc., a California Corporation

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

Henry Bueno, the plaintiff, worked for San Diego Sandblasting Inc. (San Diego). In 1979, San Diego and R. W. Little Co. (Little) jointly contracted with the government to provide sandblasting services at the Naval Station in Long Beach, California. Bueno was assigned to work on a vessel, YFD-71, owned by the United States. On August 9, 1979, the day shift employees of Little and San Diego discovered a fire in the hold of YFD-71. Mr. Fredrickson, the foreman of Little, entered the hold to determine the cause of the fire. He discovered that some planks used in the…