Barber V. Motor Vessel Blue Cat

A case simple in setting, small in amount, has become complicated and the subject of much judicial travail -- with now more to come -- because of two factors. The first is that the Libelant, or more likely his first proctor who since withdrew, became mesmerized by the title "Master" in describing the status of the Libelant seeking a lien for wages. The second is that the Trial Court forgot the lesson so often brought home by us that at this day and time dismissal of a claim -- land-based, waterborne, amphibious, equitable, legal, maritime, or an ambiguous, amphibious mixture of all of them, Mike Hooks, Inc. v. Pena, 5 Cir., 1963, 313 F.2d 696, 1963 AMC 355, on the basis of the barebone pleadings is a precarious one with a high mortality rate. Millet v. Godchaux Sugars, Inc., 5 Cir., 1957, 241 F.2d 264, esp. n. 1.*fn1