In September of 1955 the United States Army Dredge Pacific and the petitioner's vessel F. E. Weyerhaeuser were in a collision off the Oregon coast. To recover for its resultant damages the petitioner brought this action against the United States under the Public Vessels Act. A cross-libel was filed, and the District Court after a hearing found that the collision had occurred through the mutual fault of both vessels. Applying the settled admiralty rule of divided damages, the court held that each party was entitled to recover from the other one-half of its provable damages and court costs. 174 F.Supp. 663 supplemented at 178 F.Supp. 496.
A United States Civil Service employee aboard the Pacific, Reynold E. Ostrom, had sustained personal injuries in the collision. He had received compensation for these injuries under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, and had then filed a suit against the petitioner to recover damages. That lawsuit was subsequently settled by the payment to Ostrom of $16,000 by the petitioner, and Ostrom then repaid to the United States the amount which had previously been awarded him as statutory compensation, as required by the Compensation Act.
The United States objected to the inclusion, as part of the petitioner's damages from the collision, of the $16,000 which the petitioner had paid to Ostrom. The Government stipulated that the amount was a reasonable settlement of Ostrom's claim, and agreed that such a payment would ordinarily be includible as a proper item of the damages to be divided pursuant to the accepted admiralty formula. The Government took the position, however, that with respect to the amount paid Ostrom the established admiralty rule has been qualified by § 7(b) of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, which provides that the liability of the United States under the Act for
'injury or death of an employee shall be exclusive, and in place, of all other liability of the United States or such instrumentality to the employee, his legal representative, spouse, dependents, next of kin, and anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages from the United States * * * on account of such injury or death, in any direct judicial proceedings in a civil action or in admiralty, or by proceedings, whether administrative or judicial, under any other workmen's compensation law or under any Federal tort liability statute * * *.'
The District Court rejected the Government's argument and entered a decree which recognized the amount paid by the petitioner to Ostrom as part of the petitioner's provable damages from the collision. The Court of Appeals reversed, remanding the case to the District Court with directions to recompute the damages after excluding the Ostrom settlement, holding that the exclusive liability provision of § 7(b) of the Compensation Act precluded any liability of the United States on account of the petitioner's payment for Ostrom's personal injuries. 294 F.2d 179.
We granted certiorari to consider the single question whether the historic admiralty rule of divided damages in mutual fault collisions has been qualified, as the Court of Appeals held, by the exclusive liability provision of the federal compensation statute. 369 U.S. 810, 82 S.Ct. 688, 7 L.Ed.2d 611. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we hold that this provision of the compensation statute does not so limit the admiralty rule, and we accordingly reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
As this Court has pointed out, the Public Vessels Act 'was intended to impose on the United States the same liability (apart from seizure or arrest under a libel in rem) as is imposed by the admiralty law on the private shipowner * * *.' Canadian Aviator, Ltd. v. United States, 324 U.S. 215, 228, 65 S.Ct. 639, 646, 89 L.Ed. 901. And there can be no question that a private shipowner in a case such as this would be liable for half of all the petitioner's provable damages, including the $16,000 paid to Ostrom. The Government argues, however, that the 'plain words' of the federal compensation statute nevertheless operate to limit the Government's liability in this case.