Flint & P. M. R. Co. v. Marine Ins.

71 F. 210, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan
DecidedOctober 7, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 71 F. 210 (Flint & P. M. R. Co. v. Marine Ins.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flint & P. M. R. Co. v. Marine Ins., 71 F. 210, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603 (circtedmi 1895).

Opinion

SWAN, District Judge.

Three grounds are assigned in plaintiff’s motion for a new trial: (1) Because the court directed a verdict for the defendant; (2) because of newly-discovered evidence; (3) that the plaintiff was taken by surprise.

In considering this motion, it is to be borne in mind that it is an appeal to the discretion of the court, and not merely to its power, and the real question for determination is whether the party applying for a new trial has been wronged by the misdirection of the court in matter of law, or, without fault or laches on his part, has been disabled from fully presenting his case, and injustice would be done if the verdict were allowed to stand. The first inquiry, therefore, is whether upon this record, which comprises all the evidence in the cause, the direction by the court of a verdict for the defendant was erroneous.

In Railroad Co. v. Converse, 139 U. S. 169, 11 Sup. Ct. 569, which is a late expression of the power of the court to direct a verdict, it is said:

“It is well settled that a court may withdraw a case from them [the jury] altogether, and direct a verdict for the plaintiff or the defendant, as the one or Hie other may be proper, where the evidence is undisputed or is of such conclusive character that the court, in the exercise of a sound judicial discretion, would be compelled to set aside a verdict returned in opposition to it.”

This is but one of many explicit declarations of a doctrine which has obtained in that court certainly as early as the case of Parks v. Ross, 11 How. 362.

If is still more pointedly stated in North Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Commercial Nat. Bank of Chicago, 123 U. S. 727-733, 8 Sup. Ct. 266, where it is said:

“It would be an idle proceeding to submit the evidence to the jury when they could justly find only in one way.”

The reasons for the instruction in defendant’s favor in the case at bar were founded upon the undisputed facts (1) that the steamer, at and prior to the stranding, was running in a thick blinding snowstorm at full speed; (2) that, under those conditions which demanded the highest vigilance and the most circumspect navigation, no lookout was maintained on the steamer; (3) that the stranding of the steamer was also contributed to, in large part, by the defective condition of her rudder, because of which the master put his wheel hard a-starboard, swinging the vessel towards the land, preferring the chances of keeping the vessel off the land while heading for it and [214]*214swinging 13 points, to the more natural and prudent maneuver of heading out into the open lake, and bringing the steamer head to the wind under a hard a-port wheel, to effect which she had to swing only 8 points.

Upon the trial, defendant offered in evidence the act of the parliament of the dominion of Canada passed in the forty-third year of Queen Victoria (2d sess. 4th parliament, c. 29, p. 236), entitled “An act to make better provision respecting the navigation of Canadian waters.” Section 2, arts. 13, 24, and section 11 of that act provide as follows:

“Art. 13. Every ship, whether a sailing ship or a steam ship shall in a fog, mist or falling snow go at a moderate speed.”
“Art. 24. Nothing in these rules shall exonerate any ship or the owner, or master or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to keep a proper lookout or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen or by the special cireumstánces of the case.”
“See. 11. Whenever foreign ships are within Canadian waters, the rules for preventing collision prescribed by this act and all provisions of this act relating to such rules or otherwise relating to collisions shall apply to such foreign ships and in any case arising in any court of justice in Canada, concerning matters happening within Canadian waters, foreign ships shall, so far as regards such rules and provisions, be treated as if they were British or Canadian ships.”

Article 13 of the Canadian statute is identical with article 13 of the act of congress entitled “An act to adopt the revised international regulations for preventing collisions at sea,” approved March 3,1885.

Article 24 of the Canadian statute is identical with article 24 of the act of 1885. By the first section of the act of 1885, the rules and regulations thereby enacted “shall be followed in the navigation of all public and private vessels of the United States upon the high seas and in all coast waters of the United States, excepting such as are otherwise provided for.”

By section 2'of the same act it is provided that:

“All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with the foregoing revised international rules and regulations for the navigation of all public and private vessels of the United States upon the high seas and in all coast waters of the United States are hereby x-epéaled, except as to the navigation of such vessels within the harbors, lakes and inland waters of the United States. * * *1» '

Whether this statute controlled the navigation of the Great Lakes we need not decide. The reasons for observing upon those waters the precautions it enjoins are as strong as those which led to its adoption for ocean navigation.

By rule 21, c. 5, tit. 48, “Commerce and Navigation,” Rev. St. U. S. (section 4233), it is enacted that “every steam vessel shall, when in a fog, go at a moderate speed.”

Whether, therefore, the F. & P. M. No. 2, at the time of her stranding, was subject to the Canadian statute, because navigating in waters of the dominion, or whether' she was governed by rule 21 of section 4233, Rev. St. U. S., or by articles 13 and 24 of section 1 of the act of March 3, 1885, is immaterial. The better opinion would seem to be that the steamer was under the law of her flag. U. S. [215]*215v. Rodgers, 150 U. S. 249, 14 Sup. Ct. 109. The express language of the Canadian and the later American statute, and the evident spirit of rule 21, have all a common purpose; and although the latter does not expressly enjoin moderate speed in a “mist” or “falling snow,” but speaks only of a “fog,” there can be no doubt that it is as mandatory of moderate speed in “mist” or “falling snow,” as the other statutes where these conditions of the atmosphere are expressly mentioned, since all are equally within the reason of rule 21.

As said in Jones v. Indemnity Co., 101 U. S. 626:

“A tiling may be within a statute but not within its letter, or witliin the letter anti yet not within the statute. The intent of the lawmaker is the law.”

The intent of these navigation acts is obviously the security of life and property, and it is essential to the attainment of that object that the word “fog,” in rule 21, should be held a generic term, descriptive of all conditions of the atmosphere increasing the perils of navigation, and that its meaning should not be limited to the strictly technical definition of the word. It is the obscuration, not its particular natural cause, which necessitates moderate speed, and all other precautions.

In Richelieu & O. Nav. Co. v. Boston Marine Ins.

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Bluebook (online)
71 F. 210, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flint-p-m-r-co-v-marine-ins-circtedmi-1895.