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Admiralty Law Keyed to Maraist
Morehead v. Atkinson-Kiewit, J/V
Citation:
97 F.3d 603 (1996)Facts
Mark Morehead was employed by Atkinson-Kiewit (A-K), a joint venture formed to complete construction of the Jamestown Bridge spanning Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. A-K bareboat chartered several barges, including the CHER 106 and HUGHES 707, to transport materials and equipment around the bay. A-K hired carpenters from a local union who performed both carpentry and linehandling duties as “scowmen” on the barges.
On January 29, 1990, Morehead and another carpenter/scowman, Steven Breault, were untying the HUGHES 707 from the CHER 106. The barges were not carrying materials or equipment at the time but were set off on the north side of the Davisville Pier. Breault threw a heavy line to Morehead, who stepped backward into an open hatch while attempting to catch it. The hatch was flush with the deck. Breault testified that he had opened the hatch a few days earlier because A-K was preparing for an off-hire survey before returning the barge to its owner, and that a supervisor carpenter had instructed him to do so.
The district court found that the single open hatch was “insufficiently obvious” and would have made the barge unseaworthy, though this was irrelevant under section 905(b) of the LHWCA. The court determined that the condition was created by A-K in its capacity as charterer/employer, not in its capacity as vessel owner.
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