Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/509

 DWTER ». NATIONAL STEAM-SHIP CO, 4:96 �safe condition, and by reason of the failure to discharge that duty is liable, without proof as to who was the wrong-doer. �If I were convinced that the condition of the hatchway, at the time of the accident, was proof of a failure on the part of the defendant to discharge a duty attaching to him in respect to the hatchway, I should find no difficulty in holding the defendant liable, whether the grating^was misplaoed by the stevedore, the elevator men, or the crew of the vessel. But I cannot agree to the proposition that it was part of the defend- ants duty to maintain a safe covering upon this hatchway. Hatchways are well-known features and sources of dangers on a ship. They are intended to be open a large portion of the time, especially when in port, not only for the purposes of loading and unloading cargo, but also for ventilation. An open hatchway on a ship, when provided with the usual comb- ings, is not evidence of a neglect of duty on the part of the ship-owner. On the contrary, a ship-owner has the right to allow the hatchways of his ship to remain uncovered and unprotected, except by the usual combings ; and aU persons moving upon the decks of a ship are chargeable with notice of the probable presence of open hatchways on the deck. Neither is it the duty of the ship-owner to maintain a guard stationed at the hatchway of his ship for the purpose of pro- tecting persons from injury by falling into it. Sueh a duty would be burdensome in the extreme, and is not required by the law. Murray v. McLean, 57 111. 378. The requirement would be unreasonable, has never been observed in practiee^ nor, so far as I know, declared in any adjudicated case. �The cases cited, where the injury arose from defective ma* chinery, afford no support to the position taken by the plain- tiff, because here there is no pretence that the injury arose from any defect, weakness, or faulty construction of the grat- ing. The cases cited, deolaring a liability for injury arising from holes in thoroughfares, improperly protected holes in floors, and the like, are equally inapplicable here. The deck of a steamer is not a highway, and is a place where open hatchways must be maintained, and therefore are to be ex* pected and avoided. ����