Kibadeaux v. Standard Dredging Co‪.‬

Kibadeaux libeled the steam dredge Burlington in admiralty for a personal injury. On stipulated facts the libel was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The question on this appeal is whether a deck hand on a dredge engaged in cleaning the slips in Galveston harbor navigated by ships in interstate and foreign commerce, who was injured while at work by defects in the appliances of the dredge, may libel the dredge in admiralty, or must claim under the Federal Longshoremens and Harbor Workers Act (33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq.), or under the State Employees Compensation Act (Vernons Ann. Civ. St. Tex. art. 8306 et seq.); he having applied for compensation under the last-named act and received some of it, but the payment being voluntary and not under an award or by virtue of any contract of settlement. The District Court held that the Texas law applied.