CALCOT, LTD. v. Isbrandtsen Company
| Decision Date | 29 December 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. C 157-60.,C 157-60. |
| Citation | 200 F. Supp. 165 |
| Parties | CALCOT, LTD., and Fireman's Insurance Fund Company, Plaintiffs, v. ISBRANDTSEN COMPANY, Inc., San Juan Mercantile Corp., Municipality of Ponce, Luis A. Ayala Colon, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Patrick J. Wilson, Ponce, P. R., for plaintiffs.
E. Cordova Diaz, J. L. Cordova, Jr., Carlos Romero Barcelo, San Juan, P. R., Miguel A. Rios Lugo, Santurce, P. R., for defendants.
This action was tried and is now before the Court for decision, exclusively as to the issue of liability.
I have given due consideration to the pleadings, to the oral and documentary evidence adduced by the parties as to said issue, and to the memoranda of counsel thereon and I am duly advised in the premises.
The plaintiffs herein are Calcot Ltd., the shipper of the 400 hundred bales of cotton to which this action refers and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, the insurer of said shipment.
The defendants herein are: (1) Isbrandtsen Company Inc., as owner and operator of SS Flying Hawk on which said shipment was transported from Stockton, California to Ponce, Puerto Rico, (2) San Juan Mercantile Corporation, as alleged agent of Isbrandtsen in Puerto Rico, (3) The Municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico, as owner and operator of the Municipal Pier of Ponce, where said shipment of cotton was discharged from the vessel; and (4) Luis Ayala Colon, as stevedoring contractor who handled the discharge of said cotton from the vessel to said pier, and also as alleged agent of Isbrandtsen.
The plaintiffs contend, that the defendant Isbrandtsen Co., as owner and operator of the SS Flying Hawk acting through the master and crew of said vessel, or through its alleged agents San Juan Mercantile Corporation and/or Luis Ayala Colon; and/or that the defendant San Juan Mercantile Corporation, individually or as alleged agent of Isbrandtsen; and/or the defendant Luis Ayala Colon, individually or as alleged agent of Isbrandtsen; and/or the defendant the Municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico, in its private, individual and non-public character, as owner and operator of the Municipal Pier of Ponce, are liable to said plaintiffs on the loss allegedly suffered by the latter on account of a fire which damaged the aforesaid cotton shipment while said cotton was stored at the Municipal Pier of Ponce over 5 days after its discharge from the SS Flying Hawk.
The undisputed evidence is to the effect that the SS Flying Hawk arrived at the port of Ponce on July 5, 1959, that the cotton shipment was discharged on said Ponce pier and the vessel left on the same date.
The fire which damaged 175 bales took place a week later, on July 12, 1959, after 225 bales of cotton had been removed from the pier, submitted to...
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