FEDERAL REPORTER.
Cardenas, after the discharge of the coal, and before the load. ing of the sugar. It is much more probable that the limbers were stopped by coal than by sugar or molasses. At all events, I do not think they are shown to have been stopped by the latter. I must, therefore, hold that the schooner was not fit for the voyage, and was unseaworthy, on account of the defective condition of her limbers, and that this caused or contributed to the damage to the sugar. It appears that the loss on this sugar has been paid by the underwriters, and this suit is prosecuted for their benefit; and it is argued on the part of the claimants that the payment is an admission that the loss was not caused by the unseaworthiness of the vessel. But all the authorities are opposed to this claim, and it cannot be sustained. .Monti. cello v. Mollison, 17 How. 152; Insurance 00. v. The O. D. Jr. 1 Wood, 72; The Amazon Ins. 00. v. The Stemnboat b'on Mountain, 4 Cent. L. J. 103. The entry is to be: Interlocutory decree for libellants.
WILLIS
and others v. THE STEAMSHIP CITY (Di$trict Oourt, S. D. New York.
OF
AUSTIN, etc.
April 16, 1880.)
BILL OF LADING-DELIVERY ON WUARF-LIABII,ITY OF VESSEL.-A
bill of lading provided that the goods should be at the risk of owner, consignee or shipper as soon as delivered from the tackles of the steamer at her port of destination. The evidence showing a discharge of the goods upon the wharf at such port, and that they were afterwards taken away by the drayman of the party to whom they were directed, though not the one foJ' whom they were intended, held, that the liability of the vessel had ceased.
Oreevy, Bush « Olark, for libellants. Butler, Stillman «Hubbard, for claimants. CHOATE, D. J. This is a libel in rem to recover damages for the failure of the steamship to deliver a case of merchandise conformably to the bill of lading issued for the same. The answer is that the case was delivered according to the terms
WILLIS V. STEAMSHIP CITY OF AUSTIN.
413
of the bill of lading. The bill of lading contained the following clause: "It is expressly understood that the articles named in this bill of lading shall be at the risk of the owner, shipper or consignee thereof, as soon as delivered from the tackles of the steamer at her port of destination; and if not taken away the same day by him they may, at the option of the steamer's agents, be sent to store, permitted to lay where landed, or return to the port of shipment at the expense and risk of the aforesaid owner, shipper or consignee." The steamer·carried upon the same voyage over 1,000 cases and packages for a. firm called L. & H. Blum, and some 700 for the libellants. Both the libellants and L. & H. Blum were merchants. doing business at Galveston, Texas, and the voyage was from New York to Galveston. It is claimed on the part of the steamer that, under the bill of lading, the ship is not liable for the loss of the goods if it happened after they were landed on the wharf at Galveston; that the consignees, these libellants, had notice of the time and place at which the ship was to discharge her cargo, and actually attended at the wharf by their agents during the discharge before this particular case was put out on the wharf; that they, therefore, had due notice of the landing. In the case of The Santee, 2 Ben. 595, 7 Bl. 186, a construction was given to a bill of lading similar to this, except that in that case the bill of lading also provided that the goods should be received by the consignee "package by package, as so delivered," i. e., "from the tackles of the steamer." It was held that under such a bill of lading the ship'sliabliity ceased when the goods were put on the wharf from the the tackles of the ship, and that the fact that the mate afterwards attempted a separation of the goods of the several consignees, and took receipts for them, did not affect the question. .I do not think there is any material distinction between the two cases. The words held, in the case of the Santee most distinctly to show the purpose of the parties to limit the liability of the ship to the time when the goods were placed on the wharf from the tackles of the ship, was that clause which provides that if the goods, after being 80 deliv-
414
from the tackles, should not be taken away the same hy, they might, at the option of the agents of the ves3el, be "sent to store" or "permitted to lay where landed," at the expense and risk of the consignee. As to that, Judge Blatchford says, (2 Ben. 525 :) "This provision is not ambiguous, and plainly shows that the parties intended that a lan,ding of the cotton on the wharf, at the place of destination, should be regarded as a delivery of it from the tackles of the This remark applies with full force to the present ease. It is, however, insisted that there is no proof that the case in question was landed on the wharf before it wa.s taken away.' There is evidence showing that the cartmen employed by L. & H. Blum, and cartmen employed by the libellants, went to the wharf and took and carried away cases and packa.ges of goods, and that Blum received one package more than his bills of lading called for, and the libellants one less than theirs called for. There is also evidence tending to sllow that this particular package was misdirected, having upon it the name of "L. & H. Blum," instead of "P. J. Willis & Co.," as stated in the bill of lading. It is shown that some time after the discharge of the cargo the goods contained in this case were found in Blum's store, where, after they were so discovered, they were destroyed by fire. It also was shown that the delivert clerk of the steamer at Galveston was present during the discharge of the cargo, and the carting away of the goods, and that he took note of the number of packages taken away by the cartmen of each consignee, as they were taken away. This witness testifies that "the freight was discharged from the vessel by stevedores; that the draymen selected the freight as it lay on the wharf." This, it seems to me, is sufficient proof that the case in question had been already delivered upon the wharf befort> it was taken, as, upon the proofs, it appears that it was taken by Blum's drayman. The subsequent acts of the de. livery clerk, which in his testimony he described as a deliv. ery of the goods to the drayman-that is, the checking off of the number of the cart, name of drayman, etc.-are in no way . .different in character or effect from what was done by the
IIKONETTI ·V. :rOSTER.
mate in the case of the Santee. It is observed, in that case, that an actnal delivery from the tackles of the ship upon the cart of the wrong person would make the ship liable. 2. Ben. 525; 7 Bl. 188. The evidence does not show any such to Blum as that. On the contrary, the proof direct is that the goods were landed on the wharf, and afterwards taken away by Blum's draymen. I think, therefore, the case is governed by the case of. the Santee, and that the ship is not responsible, because the goods in question were delivered, within the meaning of the bill of lading, and the consignees had full notice to attend, and did, in fact, attend, upon th& discharge of the vessel to receive their goods. Libel dismissed, with cost..
SIMONETTI
v.
FOSTER
and others.
(District Court, D. MalsacJnuettl. May, 1880.) CJu.RTER-PA.RTY-GUARANTY OJ' VESSEL'S OAPACITY.-A
charter-party guaranteed the vessel to be able to stow and carry, on the draft of water allowed by the surveyorso[ the board of underwriters, at least 1,000 tons dead weight. A survey indicated that the capacity to so stow and carry on such draft was but 925 tons. Held, that the charterers were 110&bound to accept and load such vessel.
C. T. « T. H. Russell, for libellant. A. « J. R. Churchill, for respondents. NELSON, D. J. This is a libel to damages for refusing to load a vessel. The libellant is the owner of the Italian bark, Caterina S., and by a charter-party executed between the parties, December 3, 1878, in which she is described as of "619 tons, or thereabouts, register measurement,'; lei the bark to the respondents for a voyage from Boston to a port in the United Kingdom, or on the continent between Havre and Hamburg, both inclusive, for which the respondents agreed to pay a lump sum of £1,050 British sterling. The charter-party recited that the bark was then "in a Mediterranean port, ready to proceed to Trapani, and there to take a cargo of salt for Boston direct, after discharging which she is to load under this charter," and it contained this clause: