Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co

In Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co., 318 U.S. 724, 63 S.Ct. 930, 87 L.Ed. 1107 (1943), the Court was presented "for the first time [with] the question of the existence and scope of the shipowner's duty when the seaman is injured while on shore leave but without specific chore for the ship." Id. at 733, 63 S.Ct. at 935. It answered as follows. We think that the principles governing shipboard injuries apply to the facts presented by these cases. To relieve the shipowner of his obligation in the case of injuries incurred on shore leave would cast upon the seaman hazards encountered only by reason of the voyage. .... The voyage creates not only the need for relaxation ashore, but the necessity that it be satisfied in distant and unfamiliar ports. If, in those surroundings, the seaman, without disqualifying misconduct, contracts disease or incurs injury, it is because of the voyage, the shipowner's business. That business has separated him from his usual places of association. (Id. at 733-34, 63 S.Ct. at 935-36. (