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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to talk to you about United States v. Carroll Towing,
one of judge Learned Hand’s most famous tort opinions.
Judge Learned Hand served on the second circuit court of appeals, and is often called the
greatest circuit court judge.
The case starts off in the New York City harbor during World War II, with the Pennsylvania
Rail Road shipping, in its railway cars, flour owned by the United States government.
When the railway cars arrived in New York City, the railroad rented the barge “Anna
C.” from Connors Marine and moved the railway cars onto the barge in the harbor.
As part of their rental agreement, Connors Marine promised to provide a sailor, or what
the case calls a bargee, between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm every day.
Because of wartime conditions, barges were daisy chained to each other from the pier,
extending out into the harbor.
The Anna C. was moored at pier 52 along with five other barges, all lashed one right next
to the other.
Over at the next pier, called the public pier, four barges were secured in the same manner.
The captain of the tug Carroll found these two rows of barges and needed one of the barges
in the public pier next to the Anna C. But to get his barge he needed to remove a rope
that connected the two rows of barges.
So the captain of the tug sent two employees onto the barges to remove the rope—the case
calls one of the employees a bargee and the other a deckhand.
They untied the rope and got their barge, but they forgot to retie the rope once they
were done.
After a few minutes the rope that secured the Anna C. broke from the pier and all six
barges started to float away.
It was about 2pm in the afternoon.
After drifting for a few minutes, the Anna C. crashed into the propeller of a nearby
tanker, causing a hole that could not be seen from the outside the ship because the hole was
under the water line.
The captain of the tug rushed back and secured the Anna C. to the pier, but he was unaware of the
hole, the Anna C. filled with water and it sank into the harbor, ruining all the flour.
It is clear that if Anna C.’s employee had been on board he would have found the
hole and kept the Anna C. from sinking.
The issue in the case is whether Connors Marine breached its duty of care by failing to have
an employee on board the Anna C. during working hours, as required by its contract.
Learned Hand used the following algebraic formula to explain breach of duty: B<PxL.
B is the burden of taking adequate precautions, P is the probability of harm, and L is the
gravity of the harm.
As applied to this case, the burden for Connors Marine was keeping an employee on the barge
during working hours.
Next, we look at the probability of harm, which in a busy war time harbor with many
barges being moved in and out is fairly high.
Finally, we look at the gravity of harm.
If a barge were to break loose, the harm would likely cause significant damage.
Learned Hand held that Connors Marine, the barge owner, breached its duty of care and
was therefore negligent for failing to have an employee on board the Anna C. when she
sank.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, where I explain in detail how to use the Learned
Hand formula on an exam and in the practice of law.
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