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very new analysis of the law, a new interpretation of the law. I remember coming down to Washington and finally being supported by the Supreme Court. Of course I didn't actually argue a case before the Supreme Court, but I practically held up the Assistant Attorney General while he did. That was the Mahti Latti Case. As can be gathered by his name, he was either a Finn or a Latvian. Mahti means Matthew. He was a worker on the docks - not a longshoreman, but a carpenter.
There has always been a great legal controversy as to when a workmen's compensation case falls under the maritime law and becomes a suit against the ship and when it is straight workmen's compensation. A man who works along the docks - a longshoreman who is sometimes on or off the ships and any other man who works around ships - is always in a very uncertain area as to whether he is covered by the maritime law or covered by the workmen's compensation law of the state in which he happens to be working in at the moment. I remember having this explained to me early in my career in the Industrial Commission by a great maritime lawyer. The maritime law works upon the concept that the ship is a personality, an entity, in herself. She is never referred to as “it,” but always referred to as a person, “given a name in baptism,” and from then on is herself an entity. The
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