Heder v. United States

MATHEWS, Circuit Judge.

At all pertinent times, the steamship Robert M. LaFollette was owned, operated and employed as a merchant vessel by appellee, the United States. On and prior to August 7, 1945, appellant, Walter M. Heder, a minor was employed by appellee as a seaman on board the vessel. On August 7, 1945, while the vessel was at anchor in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on navigable waters of the Pacific Ocean, appellant was injured when his left thumb was caught between a line and a spool called a niggerhead.

Thereafter appellant, by his guardian ad litem, filed a libel in personam against…