Holm v. American Ship Building Co‪.‬

The appellant was employed by the Great Lakes Steamship Company as a shipkeeper of the S. S. Ayers, which was laid up at a dock in the appellees shipyard in Lorain, Ohio, undergoing repair. The appellant lived on the vessel. In the afternoon of March 8, 1955, he slipped from a wet gangplank, while returning to the ship with groceries, and was severely injured. He brought this action against the shipbuilding company alleging negligence of the appellee under the laws of "the State of Ohio, Ordinances of the City of Lorain, Ohio, and rules of the common law." The negligence charged was failure to supply a proper guard rail or to give notice of the dangerous condition of the gangway. At the conclusion of the plaintiffs case, the court directed a verdict for the defendant, stating that the case involved Ohio law and that the defendant had fulfilled its duty not to entrap the plaintiff by failure to notify him of the slippery condition of the gangway. He challenges the judgment on the ground that the Court should have applied admiralty law and that it was error to direct a verdict.