The Beaconsfield

Citations

• 158 U.S. 303
• 15 S. Ct. 860
• 39 L. Ed. 993
• 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2256

Syllabus

<p>The carrier is so far the representative of the owner, that he may sue in liis own name, either at common law or in admiralty, for a trespass upon or injury to the property carried.</p> <p>If a cargo be damaged by collision between two vessels, the owner may pursue both vessels, or either, or the owners of both, or either; and in case he proceeds against one only, and both are held in fault, he may recover his entire damages of the one sued.</p> <p>A person who has suffered injury by the joint ‘action of two or more wrongdoers, may have his remedy against all or either, subject to the condition that satisfaction once obtained is a bar to further proceedings.</p> <p>If the owner of a vessel, libellant on his own behalf and on behalf of the owner of the cargo, takes no appeal from a decree dismissing the libel as to his own vessel, the owner of the cargo may be substituted as libellant in his place, and the failure of the owner of the vessel to appeal is a technical defence which ought not to prejudice the owner of the cargo.</p> <p>Stipulations in admiralty are not subject to the rigid rules of the common law with respect to the liability of the surety ; and so long as the cause, of action remains practically the same, a mere change in the name of the libellant, as by substituting the real party in interest for a nominal party, will not avoid the stipulation as against the sureties.</p>