Kyles v. Eastern Car Liners Inc.

This is an appeal from the grant of summary judgment in a Longshore Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act “LHWCA” 33 U.S.C. § 905 b action by longshoreman, Ronald Klyes, against the ship owner, Albar Shipping and Trading Corp., and the vessel’s charterer, Eastern Car Liner, Ltd., in negligence for his injury. Finding a jury issue, we reverse. On January 23, 2002, an untrained and inexperienced Kyles was called to work loading the multi-purpose cargo vessel M/V Reina Rosa on the Savannah River. The ship’s cargo was a shipment to Japan of bags of Kaolin, and the ship’s hold was being loaded with one-ton bags. These Kaolin bags were three feet tall, three feet wide, and three feet deep. The ship’s crane lowered 24 bags at a time into the hold; after the release, a forklift picked up each bag and repositioned it. In the hold, these bags were stacked four bags high, which was a 12 foot tall stack, by fork lift and were stacked across the deck of the hold. Kyles’, job was placing cardboard on the deck for the bags to be stacked on top of and along the side of the bags.

The ship would rock and roll from the passing of another ship in the river. Also, the ship would rock from the use of both cranes at the same time. The ship would rock from the movement of three bags by forklift. The movement of the load could cause the ship to list, but the ship could be leveled by adding ballast to the ballast tanks by the ship’s crew.