## Facts

- William Harden shipped as mate on the brig *Enterprize* under articles for a voyage from Portland to Guadaloupe and elsewhere, returning to Portland.
- During the voyage, Harden became ill in a foreign port and was put ashore.
- Harden incurred expenses for medical treatment and related necessities, including nursing, diet, and lodging while ashore.
- Harden filed a libel against the master and owner seeking unpaid wages and reimbursement of illness-related expenses.
- The respondents contended that maritime law did not impose the claimed expenses, that federal seamen regulation altered any duty (particularly with an onboard medicine chest), that contractual terms could shift medical costs to the seaman, and that a prior receipt and settlement barred further recovery.
- The matter came to the circuit court on appeal from the district court in admiralty.

## Issues

1. Whether maritime law makes the vessel (and thus master/owner) liable for curing a seaman who becomes sick during the voyage, including medical care and shore-based nursing, diet, and lodging.
2. Whether federal seamen legislation displaced or limited the maritime obligation to provide cure, especially when a proper medicine chest and medical directions are aboard.
3. Whether shipping-article provisions requiring seamen to pay medical advice and medicines are enforceable without conditioning that obligation on a suitable onboard medicine chest.
4. Whether admiralty has jurisdiction to award cure-related expenses in a wage libel as part of maritime compensation.
5. Whether a receipt “in full” and a settled wage account conclusively bar later claims for illness-related expenses.
6. Which party bears the burden to prove the sufficiency of the vessel’s medicine chest under the statute.

## Decision

- The court held that cure expenses for a seaman taken sick in service of the ship are a charge on the ship under maritime law.
- The recoverable cure charge includes medicines and medical advice and also nursing, diet, and lodging when the seaman is carried ashore.
- Federal seamen regulation did not change maritime law except as to medicines and medical advice when a proper medicine chest and medical directions are aboard; nursing and lodging charges were not affected.
- Admiralty jurisdiction existed to enforce payment of cure expenses by libel because such expenses are in the nature of additional wages during sickness.
- A contractual stipulation shifting medical advice and medicine costs to seamen, without a condition requiring a suitable medicine chest, was void as contrary to statutory policy; stipulations injuring seamen contrary to maritime law would not stand absent adequate additional compensation.
- A receipt in full and a settled account were not conclusive and could be examined, explained, and reopened (surcharged and falsified).
- The burden of proving the sufficiency of the medicine chest rested on the owner.

## Legal Principles

- A vessel owes maintenance and cure: the cost of curing a seaman who becomes ill in the service of the ship is a maritime charge on the ship.
- Cure encompasses practical necessities of recovery when ashore, including nursing, diet, and lodging, not only medicine and physician services.
- Federal seamen statutes are construed as limited modifications of maritime law; they do not broadly eliminate cure duties, and non-medical cure components remain payable.
- Cure-related expenses may be recovered in admiralty as an incident of wage jurisdiction because they function as additional wages during sickness.
- Contract clauses that waive or diminish core protections for seamen are disfavored and may be void as against public policy, particularly where they conflict with statutory aims or lack compensating benefits.
- Receipts and wage settlements signed by seamen are not necessarily final; they may be challenged and corrected upon proof.
- Where statutory compliance turns on shipboard conditions (e.g., adequacy of the medicine chest), the owner bears the evidentiary burden.

## Conclusion

The court treated a seaman’s cure expenses incurred during a voyage—including shore-based nursing and lodging—as recoverable maritime compensation enforceable in admiralty, narrowly construed federal statutory limits on medical items, invalidated harmful waiver terms lacking required conditions or added pay, and allowed prior receipts and settlements to be reopened, placing the proof burden on the owner regarding the medicine chest.


Harden v. Gordon, 11 F. Cas. 480 (C.C.D. Me. 1823)