UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

1. A towboat owner may not validly contract against all liability for his own negligent towage. Pp. 349 U. S. 85-95.

(a) This Court now accepts as controlling a judicial rule, based on public policy, which invalidates contracts releasing towers from all liability for their negligence. P. 349 U. S. 90.

(b) @ 79 U. S. 86-92.

(c) Sun Oil Co. v. Dalzell Towing Co., 287 U. S. 291, distinguished. Pp. 349 U. S. 92-94.

2. The rule against contractual exemption of a towboat owner from responsibility for his own negligence cannot be defeated by providing in a contract that all employees of a towboat shall be employees of the towed vessel, when the latter "employment" is purely a fiction. Pp. 349 U. S. 94-95.

211 F.2d 401 reversed.