Consolidated Cork Corp. v. Jugoslavenska Linijska Plovidba

318 F. Supp. 1209, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9788
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedOctober 22, 1970
DocketNo. 65 Ad. 912
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 318 F. Supp. 1209 (Consolidated Cork Corp. v. Jugoslavenska Linijska Plovidba) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidated Cork Corp. v. Jugoslavenska Linijska Plovidba, 318 F. Supp. 1209, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9788 (S.D.N.Y. 1970).

Opinion

CANNELLA, District Judge.

On Tuesday, November 26, 1963, the M. V. Slovenija of the defendant Jugoslavenska Linijska Plovidba [hereinafter “JLP”] docked at Pier 2, Erie Basin, Brooklyn, New York with 1,731 bales of [1211]*1211cork waste from Portugal consigned per two bills of lading1 to the plaintiff New York corporation.

The plaintiff had sold the cork to the Dependable Cork Company [hereinafter “Dependable”] in Whippany, New Jersey where the bales, upon receipt, were broken open, one at a time, with the cork shavings and curlings being placed in a grinder. After multi-stage grinding, a binder was added to the cork, which was then compressed into cylinders three feet in diameter and four feet long, baked and left to cool for one week. Once a cylinder cooled, a cork sheet uniform in texture, strength and light coloration was to be peeled off for use as tack or bulletin boards. However, some eight days and 513 bales after the above process had been started at Dependable, a peeling of the first cool cylinder (s) resulted in tearing and sheets which were stained and discolored. Dependable’s president Herman testified, and the court so finds, that this condition was caused by water2 having seeped into the bales and wetted the cork, thereby making it unsuitable for its intended use. Dependable therefore returned the remaining 1,218 bales to the plaintiff.

The plaintiff subsequently filed its libel against JLP and its stevedore, the International Terminal Operating Co. [hereinafter “ITO”]. In answering the libel on November 4, 1965, JLP cross-claimed against ITO, allegedly pursuant to then local Admiralty Rule XVII of the Court.

While there is no question that this Court has admiralty jurisdiction over JLP, ITO has moved to dismiss plaintiff’s claim against it for lack of such jurisdiction. The plaintiff argues quite typically in opposition to this motion that “admiralty still retains an aura of equity which overcomes technicalities.”3 The technicality here, of course, is that there is no admiralty jurisdiction over plaintiff’s direct claim against ITO, but, on the other hand, it is by no means clear that practicality would not supplant technicality in a case such as this in the Second Circuit.4 While the plaintiff has not followed through with its offer to “approach the court with a list of citations setting forth [this] position in chapter and verse,”5 the court refers, for example, to the opinion in the Court of Appeals of Judge Kaufman in David Crystal, Inc. v. Cunard Steam-Ship Co., 339 F.2d 295, 300 (2d Cir. 1964). The case at bar is not one where independent jurisdictional grounds exist. Cf. Christman v. Maristella Compania Naviera, 293 F.Supp. 442 (S.D.N.Y.1968). However, the court is aware of the procedure available in 1965 to a respondent in admiralty under Admiralty Rule 56 [now essentially Rule 14(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCivP)] and also that in a case tried and recently decided by this court,6 the same JLP was the respondent, and it impleaded ITO pursuant to Rule 56 on the very day— November 4, 1965 — on which it filed its answer and cross-claim herein. Clearly, this procedure through which admiralty jurisdiction is retained over a matter involving the same transaction or occurrence could have and would have been invoked by JLP in this case but for plaintiff’s libel. Therefore, the court will decide this case as if admiralty jurisdiction had been acquired over ITO through the usual third-party procedure.

* * *

The court finds that plaintiff’s cargo was in the same unexceptionable condition at the time of unloading as [1212]*1212when lifted in Portugal7 and that all of the cork bales covered by the two “clean” bills of lading were off-loaded at Pier 2, a fit and customary wharf. There was thus a “proper delivery” within the meaning of the Harter Act, 46 U.S.C. § 190. See generally Caterpillar Overseas, S. A. v. S. S. Expeditor, 318 F.2d 720 (2d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. American Export Lines, Inc. v. Caterpillar Overseas, S. A., 375 U.S. 942, 84 S.Ct. 347, 11 L.Ed.2d 272 (1963). Once there is such a proper delivery, neither Harter nor the Carriage of Goods By Sea Act, 46 U.S.C. § 1300 et seq., is applicable, and the carrier’s duties are those of a bailee or warehouseman as set forth in the Crystal case, 223 F.Supp. 273 (S.D.N.Y.1963), aff’d, 339 F.2d 295, cert. denied, 380 U.S. 976, 85 S.Ct. 1339, 1340, 14 L.Ed.2d 271 (1965).

In searching in Crystal for the standard by which a carrier is to be judged for a misdelivery of cargo after the termination of the contract of carriage, Judge Levet pointed out that “unquestionably * * * the duty of a carrier, as warehouseman, is to exercise ordinary care for the protection of the goods.” 223 F.Supp. at 283. Thus, in order for the plaintiff to recover for the damage to the bales of cork, it must show negligence on the part of the carrier or on the part of anyone the carrier has entrusted the cargo to. See N.Y.Gen.Bus. Law § 91;8 Union Marine & General Ins. Co. v. American Export Lines, Inc., 274 F.Supp. 123 (S.D.N.Y.1966). See also The Italia, 187 F. 113 (2d Cir. 1911); Isthmian Steamship Co. v California Spray-Chemical Corp. 290 F.2d 486 (9th Cir. 1961), aff’d on rehearing, 300 F.2d 41 (9th Cir. 1962).

The court finds that the carrier, JLP, was not itself negligent, but that the actions of ITO subsequent to the unloading of the bales constituted negligence for which JLP is liable. Neither JLP nor ITO had been given specific instruction prior to, or at the time of, unloading with regard to storage of the cork. Furthermore, the bales themselves were not marked with any storage directions. ITO personnel, apparently as a matter of convenience during unloading, placed part of plaintiff’s consignment under cover on the pier, while the rest of the bales were placed in the open farm area. However, when plaintiff’s supervisor and inspector of its cork shipments saw the cork stacked in the farm area, he told ITO’s pier superintendent that the entire shipment was to be kept under cover whereupon those bales left in the open were covered by ITO men with tarpaulins.

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Bluebook (online)
318 F. Supp. 1209, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-cork-corp-v-jugoslavenska-linijska-plovidba-nysd-1970.