The Willie
| Decision Date | 29 December 1904 |
| Parties | THE WILLIE (two cases . |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Black & Kneeland, for General Chemical Co.
Butler Notman, Joline & Mynderse and Frederick M. Brown, for the Aktieselskabet Thrift.
John F Foley, for the Willie.
Avery F. Cushman, for General Lighterage Co.
The first of the above entitled actions was brought by the General Chemical Company, the owner of some 489 tons of copper pyrites ore, to recover the damages caused by the careening of the barge Willie and a dumping of a large part of said ore on or about the 3rd day of December, 1901, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, from the deck of the barge, which was engaged in removing a part of the cargo of the steamship Thrift, while she was lying inside of the breakwater in Erie Basin.
The second action was brought by the owner of the said steamship to recover for the damages caused to her by the sudden careening of the barge, which, it is said, broke the staging on the steamship, which was being used in the discharge, and by a violent blow of the barge, consequent upon the careening, against the side of the steamship, bent in her side plating and did other injury.
It is alleged by the libellants that the damages were caused by the unseaworthy condition of the barge, through leakiness and negligence in pumping and unloading, improper trimming and distribution of the cargo, and generally owing to the negligence, carelessness and want of ordinary skill on the part of the master or other persons in charge of the barge. All of the allegations adverse to the barge were denied on her behalf.
The General Lighterage Company was brought in by the barge, under the 59th Rule, upon the allegation that the owners of the barge had chartered her to that company at the rate of $5 per day, the barge being tight, staunch and seaworthy in all respects and properly equipped with a man on board as care taker. It was alleged that she was placed in the possession of the charterer, which was to have, under the contract, full control of her navigation and management and that at the time of the accident, those on board, engaged in stevedoring and loading, were in the employ of and engaged in the business of the charterer.
The Lighterage Company answered the petition, denying any liability and alleging that the barge had a man on board when she was chartered; that the compensation of $5 per day for the hire of the barge, included the services of the man, who was paid by the owner of the barge; that the man had entire control of the barge and of the loading of cargo thereon and the watching and the protecting of the cargo after it was loaded; that he was not under the orders or control of the company, except in so far as it directed the movements of the barge from place to place.
The testimony shows that the Thrift came to this port from Newfoundland on the 19th of November, 1901, with 2625 tons of the ore in question consigned to the American Metal Company which sold the cargo to the General Chemical Company. The steamship at the time was under charter to the Cape Copper Company, Limited, for which A. H. Bull & Company were the agents and they directed the steamship to proceed to the Erie Basin where she was moved inside the basin with her...
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Wessel Duval & Co. v. Charleston Lighterage & Transfer Co., 929.
...186 F. 255; The Kathryn B. Guinan (C. C. A.) 176 F. 301; Sanbern v. Wright (D. C.) 171 F. 449, affirmed (C. C. A.) 179 F. 1021; The Willie (D. C.) 134 F. 759; Dupont v. Vance, 19 How. 162, 15 L. Ed. 584; Tygert, etc., Co. v. Hagan (D. C.) 103 F. The record shows a sharp contention on the qu......
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The Transit
... ... unseaworthiness can explain the accident. In other words, the ... presumption of unseaworthiness arises where the only ... inference in the circumstances is that of unseaworthiness ... The Loyal, 204 F. 930, 123 C.C.A. 252; The Willie (D.C.) 134 ... F. 759; Sanbern v. Wright & Cobb Lighterage Co ... (D.C.) 171 F. 449; Id., 179 F. 1021, 102 C.C.A. 666; ... Oregon Round Lumber Co. v. Portland & Asiatic S.S. Co ... (D.C.) 162 F. 912; Forbes v. Merchants' Exp. & ... Transp. Co. (D.C.) 111 F. 796; Id., 120 F. 1019, 56 ... ...
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The Sagamore
... ... Sagamore was chartered. The warrantor of the ability of the ... vessel to carry her full capacity of the freight contemplated ... by the parties is responsible for its failure so to do ... Work v. Leathers, 97 U.S. 379, 24 L.Ed. 1012; The ... Willie (D.C.) 134 F. 759 ... We ... think the evidence supports the claim that, if the vessel was ... in seaworthy condition, she could have carried the load ... [300 F. 705] ... upon her, and for this reason there was no overloading. The ... explanation of the sinking is found in the ... ...
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The Greenwich
... ... It was undoubtedly due to the scow's ... inability to withstand the jar and jolt of the strain of ... dumping. She was leaking before, and leaked worse afterward; ... all of which demonstrates conclusively that she was ... unseaworthy. The Loyal, 204 F. 930, 123 C.C.A. 252; The ... Willie (D.C.) 134 F. 759 ... Nor can ... liability be imposed upon the charterer. The obligation of ... the charterer was that of a bailee. In Mulvaney v. King ... Paint Mfg. Co. 256 F. 621, 167 C.C.A. 642, this court ... 'Where, ... by contract of bailment, the hirer has either ... ...