Appleton v. Crowninshield

3 Mass. 443
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1807
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 3 Mass. 443 (Appleton v. Crowninshield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Appleton v. Crowninshield, 3 Mass. 443 (Mass. 1807).

Opinion

Parker, J.

[After reciting the substance of the pleadings.] These pleadings present to us the general question, whether, under the facts disclosed thereby, the plaintiff can recover in this action; anc to decide this question, we must inquire, 1st. Whether the facts alleged in the plea are a sufficient bar to the action, if unanswered; and if they are, 2. Whether the conclusion from those facts is sufficiently avoided by the plaintiff’s replication.

* A satisfactory construction of the condition of the bond [ * 460 ] is not unattended with difficulty. Whether it was the intention of the parties that the payment of the money borrowed, with marine interest, should depend upon a literal performance of the voyage, and a return of the vessel to some port within the commonwealth, or whether, if she never returned, but was not lost by one of the misfortunes specified in the condition, viz. “ perils of the seas, fire, or enemies of the United States,” the money was to be paid, are questions about which I have been a long time in doubt.

On the one hand, it would seem, that if a return of the vessel was the fact upon which the right of the plaintiff to demand his money was to depend, the subsequent specification of accidents, by which she might be lost, was unnecessary; and on the other hand, the nature of this contract, and the common understanding, that the duty of an obligee to pay, depended upon a safe termination of his voyage, seem to forbid a restriction of the causes of his discharge to those which are enumerated, provided there was an eventual nonperformance of the voyage, without the fault of the obligor.

My mind, however, is at last satisfied that the specification of the perils, by which the vessel might be lost, does not affect the former part of the condition, and that a substantial performance of the voyage by the vessel is necessary to entitle the plaintiff to recover upon this contract. But even if it were required of the defendant, in order to acquit himself of this bond, to show that there was a loss in one of the ways mentioned in the condition, I think the facts in the case bring it within one of the stipulated causes of loss.

Whether the terms perils of the seas comprehend every species of marine accident, when accidents of several sorts are mentioned in addition to perils of the seas, I shall not undertake to decide; but I am satisfied that the taking, as alleged in the plea in bar, is, to all legal intents, a capture by the enemies of the United States; and if [404]*404it had been so alleged by the defendant, the facts would have supnorted his plea. It is so understood in questions of insurance; and the doctrine is fully supported by the English writers on insurance, and by continental jurists of high authority.

[ * 461 ] *1 am, therefore, of opinion that the plea in bar is a sufficient answer to the plaintiff’s action", unless it is avoided by the facts set forth in the replication; and whether it is so avoided or not, is the second question, which it is necessary to consider.

By the replication it appears that the sentence of condemnation was reversed, and that the value of the vessel, cargo, and freight, in money, with interest, was awarded to the defendant, and has been received by him before the commencement of this action. It is contended by the plaintiff, that under these circumstances there was no loss of the vessel, and that, therefore, as the money secured by the bond has not been paid, the bond is forfeited; and he likens it to cases of insurance, in which, if a restoration takes place before abandonment, the insured cannot recover for a total loss.

It is true that contracts of bottomry are in many respects gov erned by the same principles as contracts of insurance ; it is also true that in other respects' they are essentially different. In order to avoid a bottomry bond on the ground of loss of the vessel, the loss must be total without abandonment. Circumstances, which would enable an insured to recover after abandonment, are not alone sufficient to enable a borrower on bottomry to avoid his contract ; such as a defeat of his voyage, or temporary restraint of his vessel; but On return of his vessel, whatever may have been the events of the voyage, he is held to pay the money borrowed.

The vessel in this case was captured as prize, was condemned, and never returned to her owners, but probably was destroyed in consequence of her detention by the captors. Here was a total loss, which discharged the defendant from his bond. But it is said that the defendant has received her value, so that virtually there was no loss. In equity, the plaintiff’s case is undoubtedly very strong; and I can see no principle of mercantile honor, upon which the money can be withheld by the defendant; but we must decide upon established legal principles, and are not at liberty to wander into the field of equity, to do justice to the parties. The question with us is, whether any event, within the condition of the bond, has happened, whereby the obligor is discharged from his contract. The [ * 462 ] facts relied upon by the plaintiff show that * such event did happen, viz. the capture and condemnation of the vessel; and further, they show that she never did return. And although the defendant has recovered her full value, yet I cannot [405]*405say that there was a performance of the voyage within the meaning of the condition of the bond.

The case of Cook vs. Jennings, cited at the bar, shows that a strict performance of a condition is required to enable one party to enforce his contract against the other. In that case, the acceptance of the deals by the party, for whom they were transported, was held not to entitle the owner of the ship to freight, because they were never delivered at the place stipulated in the covenant. This is not a stronger case in equity than that was; yet there the Court felt bound to decide on strict legal principles against the manifest justice of the claim to compensation.

To this purpose also may be cited the case of Little & Al. vs. Holland

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Bluebook (online)
3 Mass. 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/appleton-v-crowninshield-mass-1807.