States? Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the decision of Judge Edwin Wadd H. Jr., of the District Court at Norfolk, in awarding damages in the amount of $18,000 to workmen who were injured, and to the state of one who was killed, while repairing the Singleton-American in dry dock at Newport News.
Stanley Ford, master and claimant of the ship, against whom the injured man and his wife, administrator of the estate of William Byrd, who lost their lives in the accident, brought libel suits for damages, appealed the case on the ground that the Federal court had no jurisdiction, so that the accident did not occur within any navigable waters of the United States, and that the damage of negligence brought by the plaintiff against the defendant had not been sustained.
The court, which voiced its opinion through Judge Knapp, decided both issues against Ford, holding, with regard to the first, that a vessel within a dry dock at a much within Federal jurisdiction as if it were afloat upon the sea and that the same principle of law.  which guarantees to the owners of the deep maritime lien for repairs to a seagoing vessel applies with equal force to the workmen who may be injured while engaged in repairing. As to the seamen, the court held that simple prudence would have dictated a more fastening for the anchor, which fell and injured the workmen. 