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ship can be sued for anything that happens in connection with her - not the owners of the ship. You don't sue the owners, you sue the S.S. Washington or the brig Mary Anne. If you have lost your baggage, you sue the ship for the loss of your baggage.
The question was whether this Mahti Latti case is under maritime law or not. If the maritime law controls, they have to bring a very expensive damage suit against the ship. In any case, the benefits are very, very arbitrary and he can't get anything that is scheduled under the Workmen's Compensation Law of the State of New York. If they are actually on the ship while injured they are under maritime law.
Mahti Latti was a carpenter repairing the docks along with other men. He was shinnying up and down the piles that go into the water and prowling around in the beams underneath to repair this and repair that. They rigged up a raft, which was of course tied by a rope to one of the piles, on which they could stand their tools and on which they could stand while making some repairs - driving nails, chipping out wood and so forth. He and another man had done this.
An accident took place while Mahti Latti was standing on this raft. He was very seriously injured, although I
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