Kaufman v. Hewitt

Citations

• 118 Wash. 556
• 204 P. 199
• 1922 Wash. LEXIS 700

Syllabus

<p>Shipping (6) — Contracts—Consideration—Fraud. Where plaintiffs leased a boat of defendants for salmon fishing in Alaska waters under a contract requiring the lessees “to purchase a purse seine net suitable in size and quality for salmon fishing,” for whose purchase price the lessors gave their promissory notes, the lessors cannot be held liable thereon for the purchase by the lessees of a net of insufficient size, represented as complying with the contract, but which was old, worn and rotten, though one of the lessors had seen it before giving the notes, but had not inspected. it.</p> <p>Same (9) — Breach of Charter by Charterer. Where the lessees of a fishing boat agreed as part of their contract to purchase a seine net, care for it while in their possession, and return it to the lessors at the close of the fishing season in as good condition as it then was, they were bailees of the seine net, and chargeable with its loss as a result of their own negligence.</p> <p>Same (9, 14) — Breach—Actions. In an action growing out of a contract for the lease of a boat during the salmon fishing season under which the lessors were to receive a proportion of the sum realized from the sale of fish caught during the season, a finding by the court on contradictory evidence that the lessees did not engage in fishing and that the value of the use of the boat during the fishing season-was $50 per day, will not be disturbed on appeal.</p> <p>Same (9) — Breach—Damages—Measure of Damages. Where a boat was leased for an Alaska salmon fishing season on the basis of a proportionate share in the catch, and the boat did not engage in fishing, the proper measure of damages is the value of the use of the boat computed on the number of days the fishing would have been profitable.</p>