Cite as: 512 U. S. 92 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
vessel has no knowledge of the hazardous condition, is limited: "[A]bsent contract provision, positive law, or custom to the contrary," a vessel "has no general duty by way of supervision or inspection to exercise reasonable care to discover dangerous conditions that develop within the confines of the cargo operations that are assigned to the stevedore." Id., at 172.
The rule relieving vessels from this general duty rests upon "the justifiable expectations of the vessel that the stevedore would perform with reasonable competence and see to the safety of the cargo operations." Ibid.; see also Hugev v. Dampskisaktieselskabet Int'l, 170 F. Supp. 601, 609-610 (SD Cal. 1959), aff'd sub nom. Metropolitan Stevedore Co. v. Dampskisaktieselskabet Int'l, 274 F. 2d 875 (CA9), cert. denied, 363 U. S. 803 (1960). These expectations derive in part from § 41 of the Act, 33 U. S. C. § 941, which requires the stevedore, as the longshoreman's employer, to provide a "reasonably safe" place to work and to take safeguards necessary to avoid injuries. Scindia Steam, 451 U. S., at 170. The expectations also derive from indemnity cases decided prior to the 1972 Act, which teach that "the stevedore [is] in the best position to avoid accidents during cargo operations" and that "the shipowner [can] rely on the stevedore's warranty to perform competently." Id., at 171, citing Italia Societa per Azioni di Navigazione v. Oregon Stevedoring Co., 376 U. S. 315 (1964); see also 451 U. S., at 175 (safety is "a matter of judgment committed to the stevedore in the first instance"). The stevedore's obligations in this regard may not be diminished by transferring them to the vessel.
Given the legal and practical realities of the maritime trade, we concluded in Scindia Steam that imposing a duty upon vessels to supervise and inspect cargo operations for the benefit of longshoremen then on board would undermine Congress' intent in § 5(b) to terminate the vessel's "automatic, faultless responsibility for conditions caused by the negligence or other defaults of the stevedore," id., at 168,
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