Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Domenico

Citations

• 117 F. 99
• 54 C.C.A. 485
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4410

Syllabus

<p>1. Admiralty—Review on Appeal—Finding oe Facts.</p> <p>A finding of fact made by the court in an admiralty case upon the conflicting testimony of witnesses examined in open court will not be disturbed on appeal.</p> <p>3. Contract—Consideration—Performance oe Legal Obligation.</p> <p>Libelants contracted with respondent, which owned a salmon canning plant in Alaska, to perform services as sailors in navigating a vessel from San Francisco to such plant and return, and in catching and canning salmon, while there, during the season, for which they were to receive a stipulated compensation. After reaching the plant they refused, without cause, to further perform the contract unless respondent’s superintendent signed an agreement to pay additional compensation. He stated that he had no authority to do so, but being unable to procure other men, owing to the remoteness of the place and the shortness of the season, he compiled with their demand, and a second contract was signed, identical with the first except as to the compensation to be paid. Held, that the agreement to pay additional compensation for services which libelants were legally bound to render under the old contract was void for want of consideration, conceding the superintendent’s authority to make it, there being no just ground to claim, under the circumstances shown, that respondent voluntarily waived the breach of the original contract by libelants.</p>