Goldsmith v. North German Lloyd, etc.

23 F. 820, 1884 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 17, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 23 F. 820 (Goldsmith v. North German Lloyd, etc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goldsmith v. North German Lloyd, etc., 23 F. 820, 1884 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214 (E.D.N.Y. 1884).

Opinion

Benedict, J.

-This action is brought by Meyer Goldsmith, the owner, and Dan Kalahr, Eugene Kalahr, and John H. Topliam, the care-takers of certain cattle and sheep shipped by Goldsmith on board the steam-ship Persian Monarch, to be transported therein from New York to London. The defendant is the owner of the steam-ship Hannover, which vessel, when disabled at sea, was fallen in with by the Persian Monarch during the voyage aforesaid, and by her towed into a port of safety.

The libel sets forth the bill of lading -under which the cattle and sheep were shipped, containing the following clause;

“The steamer has liberty to sail with or without pilots, to make deviation, to call at any port or ports for any purpose, and to tow and assist vessels in all situations.”

It then describes the services rendered the Hannover, and avers that the rendition of those services necessarily put in peril the sheep and cattle shipped, and subjected their owner to expense in maintaining [821]*821them for a longer period than otherwise would have been required, and to loss by reason of the death of some, and the depreciation in value of the remainder, owing partly to their being kept for so long a, time in confined space, and partly to their being fed reduced rations, as well as to loss by reason of losing a market by the delay.

The libel also avers that Dan Kalahr and Eugene Kalahr wore employed by Goldsmith to take care of the said sheep and cattle during the voyage, and by reason of the rendition of the salvage services aforesaid, they were compelled to give the cattle and sheep greater care and attention than otherwise would have been required of them. John H. Topham sets forth the same by way of petition to be made a co-libelant. The prayer of the libel is that the court would “decree to the libelant Meyer Goldsmith the sum of $15,000, or such other sum as this court deems proper and reasonable, and to the libelants Dan Kalahr and Eugene Kalahr such sum as is proper and reasonable in the premises,” and for such other relief, etc.

The view I take of the case renders it unnecessary to say more in regard to the proofs offered in support of the libel than that they show that while performing the voyage in the libelants’ bill of lading described, the Persian Monarch fell in with the steam-ship Hannover disabled at sea, and at her request took her in tow and brought her in safety to the port of Falmouth, whence the Persian Monarch proceeded to London, where she arrived some live days later than she would if the voyage had been performed in the ordinary time of a voyage from New York to London. The length of the voyage caused a deterioration of the sheep and cattle, owing to a lack of full rations of food, and to a crowding of the cattle and sheep, rendered necessary in order to make room to attend'to the cables by which the Hannover was towed, and 15 of the sheep died. The libelants Dan Kalahr and Eugene Kalahr and the petitioner, John H. Topham, were u of 15 men put on hoard the Persian Monarch by the shipper of the cattle and sheep to feed and care for them during the voyage. These men were hired by the run, and the length of the voyage entailed upon them additional labor in caring for and feeding the cattle and sheep. The libelant Goldsmith was not on board the Persian Monarch, and had nothing personally to do with the towing of the Hannover. His cattle and sheep in no way contributed to the successful performance of the services rendered the Hannover. On the contrary, they were, if anything, a hindrance.

Those facts show that beyond all question a salvage service of importance was rendered by the Persian Monarch to the Hannover on the occasion referred to, and the first question to be considered is whether the shipper and owner of the cattle and sheep on hoard the Persian Monarch was one of the salvors on that occasion, and as such entitled to recover of the owner of the Hannover a salvage reward.

In behalf of the shipper, it has not been contended that the bare fact of ownership on board a salving ship gives a right to share in [822]*822salvage when awarded, but it is contended that the owner of cargo on a salving ship, who consents to the rendition of the salvage service, is entitled to share in the salvage, when he, by consenting, assumes a risk which, in the absence of his consent, would be borne by the salving ship; and, it is claimed in the libelant’s behalf that the clause already quoted from the bill of lading given for the cattle and sheep was a consent by him that the Persian Monarch should tow the Hannover as she did, and that such consent put the sheep and cattle at the shipper’s risk, .and so entitles the shipper to recover salvage. In support of this position two decisions are cited. They are the case of The Blaireau, 2 Cranch, 240, decided by the supreme court, and the ease of The Colon and her Cargo, 10 Ben. 60, decided by the district court of the southern district of New York. ' Reference is also made to the ease of The Nathaniel Hooper, 3 Sum. 542.

The case of The Blaireau was a case where the owner of a cargo of salt on the salving vessel, the Firm, was allowed to share in the salvage awarded. This allowance Judge Peters (The Ship Cato, 1 Pet. Adm. 67) speaks of as “a remuneration not common, if ever made before;” and whether the decision was “for general direction or only as it respects that particular case,” he considers open for determination. The case of The Blaireau had this peculiar feature that one of the owners of the cargo, whose acts were held to bind the other owner of the cargo, was on board the Firm at the time she saved the Blaireau, and this owner not only took an active part in the labor attendant upon the service, but, as the opinion indicates, was called on to consider, and did consider, and assent to, the measures taken by the master of the Firm to effect the salvage. Moreover, I gather from the ease that the salvage service would not have been undertaken by the master of the Firm if the owner of the cargo on board had not approved the measures intended to be adopted to save the Blaireau. This act on the part of the owner of the cargo was something more than a mere waiver of any right of action against the Firm because of a deviation. It was an express assent to measures Intended to be taken to save the Blaireau, given under circumstances that rendered the assent an essential prerequisite to the service. Such I'-understand the case of The Blaireau to have been, and so understood, it furnishes no authority for the decision of this case. -Neither can authority for the decision in this case be found in the opinion delivered by Judge Story in the ease of The Nathaniel Hooper. In that case it was found that no consent was given by the owner of the cargo. The nature of a consent which would, in the opinion of that learned -judge, afford ground for the owner of the cargo to share in salvage was not determined, except that the consent must be an express consent to the deviation made, and a consequent release of the shipowner from his responsibility therefor.

If, in the ease at bar, there had been an express consent by the shipper of the cattle and sheep that the master of the Persian Mon[823]*823arch do what lie did to save the Hannover, the remarks of Judge Story in tlie case of The Nathaniel Hooper would have been more in point. Tlie decision in the case of The Nathaniel Hooper

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Bluebook (online)
23 F. 820, 1884 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goldsmith-v-north-german-lloyd-etc-nyed-1884.