## Facts

- Joseph Usner, a longshoreman employed by an independent stevedore, was loading cargo onto the S.S. *Edgar F. Luckenbach* while the vessel was moored in New Orleans.
- Some longshoremen operated the ship’s winch and boom at the No. 2 hatch; others, including Usner, worked on a barge alongside attaching cargo bundles to a sling lowered from the ship.
- The loading process had proceeded for some time without incident, and there was no claim that the winch, boom, or other equipment was defective.
- The winch operator initially did not lower the fall far enough for Usner to reach the sling; Usner signaled the ship’s flagman to have it lowered further.
- The winch operator then lowered the fall too far and too fast, causing the sling to strike Usner, knock him to the barge deck, and injure him.
- Usner sued the shipowner and charterer, alleging liability for unseaworthiness; the Fifth Circuit directed summary judgment for defendants, and the Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether an isolated, personal act of operational negligence by a fellow longshoreman, without any defective condition of the vessel, its appurtenances, cargo, or crew, can render a vessel unseaworthy.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit and held the shipowner and charterer were entitled to summary judgment.
- The Court ruled that the vessel was not unseaworthy where the injury resulted only from a single, momentary negligent operation by a fellow longshoreman.
- The Court distinguished between liability for an unseaworthy condition and liability for negligence, concluding the incident alleged only the latter.

## Legal Principles

- Unseaworthiness is a form of strict liability tied to an unsafe or defective condition of the vessel, its equipment, cargo operations as conducted, or the crew as a crew.
- Unseaworthiness liability is distinct from negligence; it is not triggered by every mishap caused by a worker’s isolated operational error.
- A single, instantaneous negligent act during an otherwise proper and safely functioning operation does not, by itself, create an unseaworthy condition.

## Conclusion

The Court held that unseaworthiness requires a defective or unsafe condition attributable to the vessel or its functioning as a system, and that a lone episode of coworker operational negligence—without any such condition—does not make a vessel unseaworthy or impose strict-liability responsibility on the shipowner.


Usner v. Luckenbach Overseas Corp., 400 U.S. 494 (1971)