Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Co. v. Reliance Marine Insurance

Citations

• 179 U.S. 1
• 21 S. Ct. 1
• 45 L. Ed. 49
• 1900 U.S. LEXIS 1839

Syllabus

<p>In marine insurance the general rule is firmly established in this court that the insurers are not liable upon memorandum articles except, in case of actual total loss, and that there can be no actual total loss when a cargo of such articles has arrived in whole or in part, in specie, at the port of destination, but only when it is physically destroyed, or its value extinguished by a loss of identity.</p> <p>In this case the entire cargo was warranted by the memorandum clause free from average unless general, and by a rider, free from particular average, but liable for absolute total loss of a part. Under these provisions the insurers were not liable for a constructive total loss, but only for an actual total loss of the whole, or of a distinct part.</p> <p>The carrying vessel was stranded, and, having been got off in a shattered condition, was subsequently condemned and sold on libels for salvage; most of the cargo was saved, and reached the port of destination in specie, a portion damaged, and a substantial part wholly uninjured. Held, That the owner could not recover for a constructive total loss, nor for an actual total loss of the whole.</p> <p>No right to abandon existed, and the insurers explicitly refused to accept the abandonment tendered. If the cargo saved was carried from the port of distress to the port of destination by the insurers, which was denied, this was no more than, by the terms of the policy, they had the right to do without prejudice, and could not be held to amount to an acceptance.</p> <p>The Circuit Court did not err in declining to leave the question of actual total loss of the entire cargo, or the question of acceptance, to the jury.</p>