The Main v. Williams

• Decision Date: 05 March 1894
• Docket Number: No. 233,233
• Citation: 14 S.Ct. 486,38 L.Ed. 381,152 U.S. 122
• Parties: THE MAIN v. WILLIAMS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

152 U.S. 122

14 S.Ct. 486

38 L.Ed. 381

THE MAIN

v WILLIAMS.

No. 233.

March 5, 1894.

Statement by Mr. Justice BROWN:

This was an appeal from a decree entered in a proceeding taken to limit the liability of the owners of the steamship Main for a collision with the steamship Montana, in respect to her 'freight pending.'

The proceedings were begun by a petition filed by the Nord Deutscher Lloyd, owner of the Main, setting forth the filing of a libel against the steamship for a collision with the steamship Montana, which occurred in the Patapsco river on January 5, 1889, wherein was claimed a sum largely in excess of the value of the Main and her freight then pending, and praying for the appointment of appraisers of the interest of petitioner in the ship and her freight for the voyage. The value of the vessel was subsequently fixed by stipulation at $70,000. The appraisers returned the amount of freight pending at $1,577.38, which was disputed. The decree of the district court subsequently fixed the gross amount of freight upon the cargo on board at the time of the collision, prepaid at Bremen, as well as collectible at Baltimore, at $1,870.10, and added thereto $5,200 gross passage money prepaid at Bremen for the transportation of emigrant passengers for Baltimore, making in all $7,070.10.

Thos. W. Hall, for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 123-125 intentionally omitted] John H. Thomas, J. Wilson Leakin, and George Leiper Thomas, for appellee.

Mr. Justice BROWN, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

This case raises two questions: (1) As to whether, under Rev. St. § 4283, the liability of a shipowner for the 'freight then pending' extends to passage money; and (2) whether it extends to freight prepaid at the port of departure.

1. By the common law, as administered both in England and America, the personal liability of the owner of a vessel for damages by collision is the same as in other cases of negligence, and is limited only by the amount of the loss and by his ability to respond. Wilson v. Dickson, 2 Barn. & Ald. 2; The Dundee, 1 Hagg. Adm. 120; The Aline, 1 W. Rob. Adm. 111; The Mellona, 3 W. Rob. Adm. 16, 20; The Wild Ranger, Lush. 553, 564; Cope v. Doherty, 4 Kay & J. 367, 378. The civil law, too, as well as the general law maritime, made no distinction in this particular in favor of shipowners. Emerigon, Contrat a la Grosse, c. 4, § 11. Nor did the ancient laws of Oleron or Wisbuy or the Hanse Towns suggest any restriction upon such liability. Indeed, it is difficult, if not impossible, to say when and where the restrictions of the modern law originated. They are found in the Consolato del Mare, which, in two separate chapters, expressly limits the liability of the part owner to the value of his share in the ship. Vinnius, an early continental writer, states that by the law of the land the owners were not chargeable beyond the value of the ship and the things that were in it. The Hanseatic ordinance of 1644 also pronounced the goods of the owner discharged from claims for damages by the sale of the ship to pay them. But, however the practice originated, it appears, by the end of the seventeenth century, to have become firmly established among the leading maritime nations of Europe, since the French ordinance of 1681, which has served as a moder for most of the modern maritime codes, declares that the owners of the ship shall be answerable for the acts of the master, but shall be discharged therefrom upon relinquishing the ship and freight. Bk. 2, tit. 8, art. 2. A similar provision in the ordinance of Rotterdam of 1721 declared that the owners should not be answerable for any act of the master done without their order, any further than their part of the ship amounted to; and, by other articles of the same ordinance, it was provided that each part owner should be liable for the value of his own share. The French ordinance of 1681 was carried, with slight change of phraseology, into the Commercial Code of France, and all the other maritime nations whose jurisprudence is founded upon the civil law. Code de Commerce, (French,) art. 216; German Mar. Code, art. 452; Code of the Netherlands, art. 321; Belgian Code, art. 216; Italian Code, art. 311; Russian Code, art. 649; Spanish Code, arts. 621, 622; Portuguese Code, art. 1345; Brazilian Code, art. 494; Argentine Code, art. 1039; Chilian Code, art. 879.

The earliest legislation in England upon the subject is found in the act of 7 Geo. II., passed in 1734, which enacted that no shipowner should be responsible for loss or damage to goods on board the ship, by embezzlement of the master or mariners, or for any damage occasioned by them without the privity or knowledge of such owner, further than the value of the ship and her appurtenances, and the freight due or to grow due for the voyage, and, if greater damage occurred, it should be averaged among those who sustained it. By subsequent acts this limitation of liability was extended to losses in which the master and mariners had no part, to losses by their negligence, and to damage done by collision, while there was an entire exemption of liability for loss or damage by fire, or for loss of gold and jewelry, unless its nature and value were disclosed. In all these statutes the liability of the owner was limited to his interest in the ship and freight for the voyage.

By section 505 of the merchants' shipping act of 1854, freight was deemed to include the value of the carriage of goods, and passage money. Owing, probably, to some difficulties encountered in determining at what point of time the value of the ship should be taken, and to establish a more uniform and equitable method of limiting the liability of the owner, the merchant shipping amendment act of 1862 extended the provisions of the prior acts to foreign as well as British ships, and to cases of loss of life or personal injury, as well as damage or loss to the cargo, and provided that the owners should not be liable in damages, in respect of loss of life or personal injury, 'to an aggregate amount exceeding fifteen sounds for each ton of their ship's tonnage,' nor, in respect of loss or damage to ships or their cargoes, to an amount exceeding eight pounds per ton.

The earliest American legislation upon this subject is found in a statute of Massachusetts passed in 1818, and revised in 1836. This was taken substantially from the statute of Geo. II. It was followed by an act of the legislature of Maine in 1831, copied from the statute of Massachusetts.

The attention of congress does not seem to have been called to the necessity for similar legislation until 1848, when the case of The Lexington, reported under the name of New Jersey Steam Nav. Co. v. Merchants' Bank, 6 How. 344, was decided by this court. In this case the owners of a steamboat, which was burned on Long Island sound, were held liable for about $18,000 in coin, which had been shipped upon the steamer and lost. In consequence of the uneasiness produced among shipowners by this decision, and for the purpose of putting American shipping upon an equality with that of other maritime nations, congress, in 1851, enacted what is commonly known as the 'Limited Liability Act,' which has been incorporated into the Revised Statutes, (sections 4282 to 4289,) and amended in certain particulars, not material to this case, in two subsequent acts, (23 Stat. 57, § 18; 24 Stat. 80, § 4.)

By section 4283, upon the construction of which this case depends, 'the liability of the owner of any vessel, for any embezzlement, loss, or destruction, by any person, of any property, goods, or merchandise, shipped or put on board of such vessel, or for any loss, damage, or injury by collision, or for any act, matter, or thing, loss, damage, or forfeiture done, occasioned, or incurred without the privity, or knowledge of such owner or owners, shall in no case exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner in such vessel, and her freight then pending.'

By the law maritime, the word 'freight' is used to denote, not the thing carried, but the compensation fot the carriage of it. Prior to the era of steam navigation, travel by sea was comparatively of such little magnitude that 'freight' was commonly used to denote compensation for the carriage of goods, yet, in Les Bones Costumes de la Mar., c. 1, (Black Book, App. pt. 3, p. 51,) it is said 'the term 'passenger' includes all those who...