Petition of Highlands Nav. Corporation
| Citation | 29 F.2d 37 |
| Decision Date | 12 November 1928 |
| Docket Number | No. 36.,36. |
| Parties | Petition of HIGHLANDS NAV. CORPORATION. THE NASSAU. THE GRAND REPUBLIC. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
George P. Nicholson, Corp. Counsel, of New York City (Charles J. Carroll, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and William A. Walling and John T. Condon, both of New York City, of counsel), for appellant.
Barry, Wainwright, Thacher & Symmers, of New York City (James K. Symmers and John C. Crawley, both of New York City, of counsel), for appellee.
Before MANTON, L. HAND, and SWAN, Circuit Judges.
The Highlands Navigation Corporation, owner of the steamships Nassau and Grand Republic, filed a petition for limitation of its liability in respect to claims arising out of the burning and sinking of these vessels on April 26, 1924, while lying at the pier of the city of New York at the foot of 155th street, North River. Permission was granted to tie up the steamers at this pier on payment of rental for such berth. The vessels were passenger excursion boats and had been laid up for the winter. They were being prepared for active service at the time of the fire. One had passed and the other was in the course of inspection by the local inspectors. The Nassau was supplying steam for boiler tests. Fires were banked in the evening, and there was no steam on her boilers during the night. About 11 o'clock on the evening of April 25th the chief engineer and his assistant returned, looked at the banked fire, put on some coal, and then went on board an adjacent vessel for the night. One night watchman cared for these vessels and made his rounds of the Nassau about midnight. Later, while on board the Grand Republic, he discovered a fire on the Nassau, which spread rapidly, burning the moorings, and caused the vessels to pass out of the slip by the falling tide and to drift down stream toward the New Jersey shore, a considerable distance. The Nassau was picked up by the city fireboat and towed back to 155th street, where she remained, and, although efforts were made to put out the fire, she sank on the southerly side of the 155th street pier. The Grand Republic burned to the water line and sank in the slip on the north side of the pier, some distance from where she had been moored.
Both vessels were a total loss, and the appellee abandoned them, giving notification of such abandonment to the Secretary of War and the city commissioner of docks. The wrecks lay inside the pier line, and the Secretary of War declined to exercise his discretionary authority to remove them. The commissioner of docks of the city demanded that the petitioner comply with section 120, art. 8, c. 8 of the Ordinances of the City of New York, which reads as follows:
* * *"
The appellant's claim is for the estimated cost of removing the wrecks from the submerged land owned by the city where the wrecks lay, and the loss occasioned by the city through the obstruction of the slips on each side of the 155th street pier. The permit issued for the berth of these vessels did not, by express terms, require the petitioner to raise the wrecks in the event of sinking from any cause, nor did it incorporate therein any obligation under the ordinance to which we have referred.
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