Isbrandtsen Company, Inc. v. Johnson (343 U.S. 779)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 9, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 343 U.S. 779 · 72 S. Ct. 1011
- Docket
- No. 493
- Argued
- April 23, 1952
- Decided
- June 9, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Burton
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black
- Dissenting
- Justice R. H. Jackson
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Burton delivered the opinion of the Court. The question before us arises in an admiralty proceeding by a seaman against his employer to recover wages earned on a merchant vessel of United States registry. The question is whether the employer may set off against the seaman’s wages its expenditures for the medical care and hospitalization of another member of the crew necessitated by injuries inflicted on him by the seaman, without justification, during the voyage on which the wages were earned. For the reasons hereafter stated we hold that it may not do so. In 1948, respondent, Johnson, was employed by petitioner, Isbrandtsen Company, Inc., as a messman on a foreign voyage of a vessel of United States registry, chartered by petitioner. On April 21, while the vessel was on its course in the Pacific, Johnson, without justification, stabbed Brandon, another member of the crew. He injured Brandon so severely that petitioner found it necessary to divert its vessel from its course in order to hospitalize Brandon on the Island of Tonga. Johnson makes no claim for wages earned after April 21. However, when discharged in Philadelphia, May 31, 1948, Johnson claimed $439.27 as earned wages due him above all deductions, without making allowance for any expenditures made by petitioner for the care or hospitalization of Brandon. When petitioner refused to pay Johnson anything,…
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