The Jumna

Citations

• 140 F. 743
• 1905 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110

Syllabus

<p>1. Collision — Lability—Faults of Navigation.</p> <p>Legal liability for damages for a collision does not necessarily arise from acts or omissions which may have caused, or might have prevented, the collision; but a fault of navigation imposing such liability must be one which was clearly bad seamanship at the time, irrespective of its results.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see vol. 10, Cent. Dig. Collision, § 16.]</p> <p>2 Same — -Tow and Steamship Being Moved from Pieb — Inevitable Accident.</p> <p>While three tugs were engaged in moving a steamship from a pier in East river, a short distance above Brooklyn Bridge, to a point below the bridge, and after they had reached about the middle of the river and had exchanged signals with a tug coming up the river with tows to pass starboard and starboard, the hawser by which the forward tug was pulling the stem of the steamship around to head her downstream broke, and a collision resulted between her and the upward-bound tows, and the latter were also driven against the piers on the Manhattan side and injuries were caused to both vessels and piers. Held, under all the facts and circumstances shown, that there was no legal fault on the part of any of the vessels, but that the collisions were the result solely of the breaking of the hawser, which was attributable in a legal sense to inevitable accident.</p> <p>3. Same — Manner of Making up Tow.</p> <p>A tug passing up East river, in the vicinity of Brooklyn Bridge, with three tows arranged on two lengths of hawser, the whole extending to a length of 800 or 900 feet, cannot be held liable for a collision between her tows and another vessel, solely on account of the manner in which the tow was made up, since, while such a long tow is more unmanageable than a shorter one, and imposes the duty of extreme care on the tug in such waters, it is neither illegal nor unusual.</p>