Ætna Ins. v. Converse

Citations

• 126 F. 742
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4363
• 61 C.C.A. 348

Syllabus

<p>1. Tug and Tow — Collision of Tow with Bridge — Negligent Navigation of Tug.</p> <p>A tug with a barge in tow on lines 100 feet long, passing down the Merrimac river at night on an ebb tide, with the weather dark and rainy and a fresh wind blowing, held in fault for a collision between the barge and a bridge pier, where, although the passage was narrow and required the exercise of care and precaution, she proceeded at full speed and kept a course not in line with the passage until within 150 feet of the bridge, when the master changed her course and entered the passage before the tow was straightened out on her course and without looking to ascertain her position, the result being that the barge, though .using her best efforts, was not able to avoid the pier.</p> <p>2. Shipping — Loss of Cargo — Exemption of Vessel from Liability by Harter Act.</p> <p>The provision of section 3 of the Harter Act (Act Feb. 13, 1893, c. 105, 27 Stat. 445 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 2946]) that, if the owner of a vessel shall exercise due diligence to make the said vessel in all respects seaworthy, and properly manned and equipped and supplied, neither the vessel nor her owners shall be held responsible for damage or loss resulting from faults or errors in navigation or in the management of said vessel, cannot be invoked to relieve a vessel from liability for loss of cargo resulting from the gross fault or negligence of the master, sufficient to raise a presumption of his incompetency, merely upon a showing that the owners had no knowledge or reason to believe that he was incompetent, that being insufficient to establish the “due diligence” required by the statute, the burden of proving which, under such state of facts, rests on the vessel. Quaere, whether the statute applies in behalf of a tug which is towing a barge transporting cargo where both tow and tug are in the same ownership.</p> <p>¶ 2. Statutory exemption of shipowners from liability for loss, see note to Nord-Deutscher Ll