The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. 11 Affairs in Admiralty. SUPREME COURT DECISION IN A LAKE CASE. In the only decision of a maritime nature handed down by the supreme court of the United States for some time past, Judge Brown, formerly of Detroit, and now Justice Brown of the supreme court, is upheld. 'The case is that of Craig vs. the Continental Insurance Company. It dates back to 1883 when James J. Reardon, now of Crosby & Macdonald, Chicago, repre- sented Crosby & Dimock, insurance agents of Buffalo. Mr. Justice Blatchford delivered the opinion of the court in which the case is stated as follows: 'This is an action at law brought by Thomas Craig, admin- istrator of the estate of John Carbry, deceased, against the Con- tinental Insurance Company of New York and three other in- surance corporations, to recover under a statute of Michigan $25,000 as damages for the death of Carbry, it being alleged that he lost his life through negligence of the defendants in De- cember, 1883. It was commenced in the superior court in the _ city of Detroit and was removed by the defendants into the cir- cuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Michi- gan. The defendants were insurers against marine risks of a steamer called the Enterprise. She was stranded Nov. 20, 1883, at Green island, Lake Huron, and had on board a cargo of mer- chandise and a crew of ten or twelve men. Her owners aband- oned her to the insurers and she became the property of the lat- ter. 'The general agent of the Continental Insurance Company was Mr. Dimock of Buffalo, who was also a member of the firm of Crosby & Dimock, who were general agents for several other companies. James J. Reardon was employed by Crosby & Dimock as a marine inspector. Among his other duties was that of going, when notified, to the assistance of wrecked and stranded vessels insured by the companies represented by Cros- by & Dimock, and getting them toa port of safety. On Nov. 29, 1883, Reardon was notified by Crosby & Dimock in regard . to the Enterprise and went with a steam tug called the Balize, with steam pumps and engineers to the assistance of the Enter- prise. One of the steam pumps was in charge of Carbry. Soon after their arriving at the place where the Enterprise was, her crew being still on board and in charge of her, the steam pumps were set up and she was pumped out and pulled off from the place where she had stranded. 'This was done under the super- vision of Reardon. She was towed in deep water, and although she leaked, she was kept free by the use of one pump for about 66 hours, from ro o'clock Thursday morning until 4 o'clock the fol- lowing Sunday morning. Part of her cargo had been removed but it was replaced. Her machinery was disabled and it was necessary that the Balize should take her in tow, to remove her to a port where she could be repaired. She started in tow astern of the Balize, bound for Detroit, at 4 o'clock Sunday morning, Dec. 9, with a crew of thirteen men, including four who were in charge of two steam pumps, one of which was in the care of Carbry. Her mate was in command and Reardon was aboard the Balize. No trouble was experienced until 2 o'clock the next day, 22 hours after she had started; and then, while off Point aux Barques and Saginaw bay, she filled and sank and be- came a total loss and Carbry lost his life. The declaration al- leged that his life was lost through the negligence of the ide- fendants, in particulars which it specified. "The defendants having in the state court separately de- manded a trial of the matters set forth in the declaration, the action was, after its removal, tried in the United States circuit' court before the district judge, Judge Brown (now of this court) and a jury; and under the instructions of the court a verdict was rendered in favor of the three defendants other than the Contt- nental Insurance Company. The trial proceeded against the latter company and resulted in a verdict against it for $8,000. On motion and in February, 1886, the verdict was set aside and a new trial was granted. The ground assigned for granting the motion was that the liability of the defendant, if any, was de- _stroyed because it was subject to the provisions of the statute limiting the liability of the owner of the vessel, and the Enter- prise was totally lost during the voyage on which the death oc- curred. A judgment was then entered in favor of the three de- fendants other than the Continental Insurance Company. The new trial was had before Judge Brown and a jury in March, 1886. 'There is a bill of exceptions which states that the court instructed the jury to render a verdict in favor of the defendants, which was done. The plaintiff excepted to the instructions of the court. The bill of exceptions contains all the evidence of- fered on both sides. A judgment in favor of the defendant was rendered in September 1887, and the plaintiff has brought the case to this court by a writ of error. It is stated in the bill of exceptions that prior to the sending of the expedition under Reardon to resctie the Enterprise, she had been abandoned by her owners to the Continental Insurance Company, by which she was insured. and had become its property; and that by rea- son of her being sunk at the time Carbry lost his life, she be- came, and was a total loss." The principal contention on the part of the plaintiff was that the statute limiting the liability did not apply to the case, because the vessel had been wrecked and abandoned to the un- derwriters; that they could not be relieved under the statute from their liability for negligence while engaged in saving the wreck or the cargo, and that she had lost her identity as a ves- sel. The court held, first, that the propeller was still a "vessel" within the meaning of the statute. Second, an underwriter to whom a stranded vessel has been abandoned is an "owner" within the meaning of the statute. of personal injury and death as well as cases of loss or injury to property. Fourth, the restriction of the statute limiting the liability of vessels not 'used in rivers or inland navigation" does not apply to a vessel used on the great lakes. Fifth, the '"pri- vity or knowledge' of a wrecking master employed by the agent of the underwriter is not the "privity or knowledge" of the owner, within the meaning of the statute limiting the liabil- ity so as to charge the owner with responsibility for the negli- gence of the wrecking master beyond the value of the vessel. LICENSING HARBOR TUGS. From a decision just rendered by the supreme court of Illi- nois it would seem that cities have the right to license harbor' tugs. Chicago has taken the initiative in this new scheme for in- creasing the revenue of municipalities and tug owners of other places will be fortunate if they are not confronted with a simi- lar law. which involves the validity of a statue of Illinois and an ordin- ance of the city of Chicago imposing license fees upon certain ° boats navigating the Chicago river. The court held that the tug boats which have been licensed by the United States for the > coasting trade, and which are engaged in towing vessels in in- terstate commerce into and out of the Chicago river, must them- _ selves be deemed in law to have engaged in interstate commerce, although their operations were in fact confined largely to the corporate limits of the city of Chicago; that where a state, in the © exercise of either the police power or the taxing power, passes laws which in their operation are an interferance with inter- state or foreign commerce which congress has undertaken to regulate, they are in controvention to the constitution and laws of the United States, and are consequently void, but where the payment exacted is by way of compensation for improvements in waterways and increased facilities of navigation, furnished at _ the expense of the state, the tolls exacted are only a 'reasonable equivalent for benefits conferred, and are in no sense an improper _ interferance with the commerce itself, and that the license fees imposed on the owners of steam tugs and other similar crafts navigating the Chicago river were merely by way of a toll, com- pensation or equivalent for the use of the river in its improved condition. The editor of the MARINE REVIEW has examined Patter- son's Nautical Dictionary thoroughly, and with pleasure recom- mends it to any one having any connection with marine affairs. -- Insurance Co. of North America. INCORPORATED 1794. LAKE MARINE DEPARTMENT, GEO. L. McCURDY, Manager, Chicago, Ill. CHARLES PLATT, President. WILLIAM A. PLATT, Vice-President. EvuGENE L. Exuison, 2d Vice-Prea't. GREVILLE EK. Fryer, Sec'y & Treas. JoHn H. Atwoop, Assistant Secretary. Capital, paid up in. cash............---c...-cseeeeeeeees $3,000 000.00 ro pratt : Se Pye ee ee. eee 8,951 ,518.83 Third, the statute applies to cases | The case is that of Harmon vs. the city of Chicago, -