The case, as stated by the court, was as follows:—
This was a suit in Admiralty, brought in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, by Patrick Curry against the steamer Max Morris.[[186]]
The libel alleged that on the 27th of October, 1884, the libellant was lawfully on board of that vessel, being employed to load coal upon her by the stevedore who had the contract for loading the coal; that, on that day, the libellant, while on the vessel, fell from her bridge to the deck, through the negligence of those in charge of her, in having removed from the bridge the ladder usually leading therefrom to the deck, and in leaving open, and failing to guard, the aperture thus left in the rail on the bridge; that the libellant was not guilty of negligence; and that he was injured by the fall and incapacitated from labor. He claimed $3000 damages.
The answer alleged negligence on the part of the libellant and an absence of negligence on the part of the claimant.
The District Court, held by Judge Brown, entered a decree in favor of the libellant for $150 damages, and $32.33 as one-half of the libellant’s costs, less $47.06 as one-half of the claimant’s costs, making the total award to the libellant $135.27. The opinion of the District Judge is reported in 24 Fed. Rep. 860. It appeared from that that the judge charged to the libellant’s own fault all his pain and suffering and all mere consequential damages, and charged the vessel with his wages, at $2 per day, for seventy-five working days, making $150.
The claimant appealed to the Circuit Court, on the ground that the libel should have been dismissed. It was stipulated between the parties that the facts as stated in the opinion of the District Judge should be taken as the facts proved in the case, and that the appeal should be heard on those facts. Judge Wallace, who heard the case on appeal in the Circuit Court, delivered an opinion, in August, 1886, which is reported in 28 Fed. Rep. 881, affirming the decree of the District Court. No decree was made on that decision, but the case came up again in the Circuit Court on the 14th of March, 1887, the Court being held by Mr. Justice Blatchford and Judge Wallace, when a certificate was signed by them stating as follows: “The libellant was a longshoreman, a resident of the city and county of New York, and was, at the time when the said accident occurred, employed as longshoreman, by the hour, by the stevedore having the contract to load coal on board the steamship Max Morris. The injuries to the libellant were occasioned by his falling through an unguarded opening in the rail on the after-end of the lower bridge. The Max Morris was a British steamship, hailing from Liverpool, England. The defendant contends, as a matter of defence to said libel, that the injuries complained of by libellant were caused by his own negligence. The libellant contends that the injuries were occasioned entirely through the fault of the vessel and her officers. The Court finds, as a matter of fact, that the injuries to the libellant were occasioned partly through his own negligence and partly through the negligence of the officers of the vessel. It now occurs, as a question of law, whether the libellant, under the above facts, is entitled to a decree for divided damages. On this question the opinions of the judges are in conflict.” On motion of the claimant, the question in difference was certified to this Court, and a decree was entered by the Circuit Court affirming the decree of the District Court and awarding to the libellant a recovery of $135.27, with interest from the date of the decree of the District Court, and $26.30 as the libellant’s costs in the Circuit Court, making a total of $172. From that decree the claimant has appealed to this Court. Rev. Stat. §§ 652, 693; Dow v. Johnson, 100 U. S. 158.
Mr. Justice Blatchford, after stating the case as above reported, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question discussed in the opinions of Judge Brown and Judge Wallace, and presented to us for decision, is whether the libellant was debarred from the recovery of any sum of money, by reason of the fact that his own negligence contributed to the accident, although there was negligence also in the officers of the vessel. The question presented by the certificate is really that question, although stated in the certificate to be whether the libellant, under the facts presented, was entitled to a decree “for divided damages.” It appears from the opinion of the District Judge that he imposed upon the claimant “some part of the damage” which his concurrent negligence occasioned, while it does not appear from the record that the award of the $150 was the result of an equal division of the damages suffered by the libellant, or a giving to him of exactly one-half, or of more or less than one-half, of such damages.
The particular question before us has never been authoritatively passed upon by this Court, and is, as stated by the District Judge in his opinion, whether, in a Court of admiralty, in a case like the present, where personal injuries to the libellant arose from his negligence concurring with that of the vessel, any damages can be awarded, or whether the libel must be dismissed, according to the rule in common-law cases.
The doctrine of an equal division of damages in admiralty, in the case of a collision between two vessels, where both are guilty of fault contributing to the collision, had long been the rule in England, but was first established by this Court in the case of The Schooner Catherine v. Dickinson, 17 How. 170, and has been applied by it to cases where, both vessels being in fault, only one of them was injured, as well as to cases where both were injured, the injured vessel, in the first case, recovering only one-half of its damages, and, in the second case, the damages suffered by the two vessels being added together and equally divided, and the vessel whose damages exceeded such one-half recovering the excess against the other vessel. In the case of The Schooner Catherine v. Dickinson, supra, both vessels being held in fault for the collision, it was said by the Court, speaking by Mr. Justice Nelson, p. 177, that the well-settled rule in the English admiralty was “to divide the loss,” and that “under the circumstances usually attending these disasters” the Court thought “the rule dividing the loss the most just and equitable, and as best tending to induce care and vigilance on both sides, in the navigation.”