Krumbhaar v. Marine Insurance

1 Serg. & Rawle 281
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 11, 1815
StatusPublished

This text of 1 Serg. & Rawle 281 (Krumbhaar v. Marine Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krumbhaar v. Marine Insurance, 1 Serg. & Rawle 281 (Pa. 1815).

Opinion

Tilghman C. J.

This is an action on two policies of insurance on goods, shipped by the plaintiff in the ship Union, on a voyage from Philadelphia to Gottenburg and another port; warranted by the assured free from damage in consequence of seizure for illicit trade or seizure in port. The ship arrived with her cargo at Gottenburg, where permission to land the cargo was refused, in consequence of a decree of the king of Sweden, prohibiting the importation of colonial produce in neutral bottoms. At Gottenburg the captain received information of a similar decree of the king of Denmark, and therefore declined proceeding to Eckenforde as had [289]*289been originally intended, and went to Leith in the island of Great Britain. At Leith permission was given to land the whole cargo, in order to repair the ship, which had suffered damage on the voyage. Permission was also given to sell the cotton, but no other part of the cargo. The cotton was sold, and the ship returned with the rest of the cargo to Philadelphia. After her arrival at Philadelphia, the plaintiff abandoned, because permission had been refused to land the cargo at Gottenburg., or to sell any part of it, but the cotton, at Leith.

The declaration states a loss by seizure of the kings of Sweden and Denmark.

No actual seizure was made, but the plaintiff contends, that the decrees of Sweden and Denmark amounted to force, because the ship and cargo would have been liable to confiscation, had the captain attempted to act in contravention of these decrees. I shall give no opinion on the law, in case the captain had broken up the voyage and proceeded from Gottenburg to Philadelphia, because the facts exhibit a very different case. The plaintiff had a right to proceed to another port, after leaving Gottenburg, and although Eckenforde appears to have been the other port originally intended, .yet there was no obligation to go there. Gottenburg was very properly selected as the port at which the ship should touch for information, and according to the information received there, th'e captain might proceed to any other port. It is stated in the protest of the captain, that he determined to return to Philadelphia, but was obliged from necessity, to touch at some neighbouring port for repairs, and therefore went first to Leith. But we must judge not so much from his words as his actions. The ship arrived at Leith the 11th of January, and although the supercargo expected to be ready to leave it by the 20th February, they remained at that port until the 5th April. It appears that other American vessels had gone from Gottenburg to Leith, with a view of trading, so that notwithstanding the regulations of the British government, hopes were entertained of being able to dispose of colonial produce at Leith; and the fact was, that cotton was permitted to be sold, in consequence of which upwards of one-third of the cargo of the Union was disposed of. The amount of the whole cargo was about 46,000 dollars, of which about 17,000 dollars was cotton. The supercargo, Mr. Rush, wrote to his owners from Leith, on the [290]*29030th January, 1811, and informed them how matters were situated. It was the general opinion there, that if the non'ntercoul’se laws of the United States wei-e again enforced, the price of c.otton would rise considerably, and in order to t„j,e a¿vantage of this circumstance it was his intention to .store the cotton. No part of it was brought back to Philadelphia, so that the whole must have been sold in Great Britain. Here there was a trading to a very large amount, and there is no evidence of any great expenses for repairs, so that the pretence of selling this cotton for the purpose of raising money for repairs .will not avail. The supercargo’s letter was received in Philadelphia, on the 1st April, yet no abandonment was made till 21st May, after the ship’s arrival at Philadelphia. This proves, that the voyage was not considered as broken up, for if it was, the abandonment should have been made immediately. But in answer to this it is said, that no part of the plaintiff’s goods were sold at Leith; he had no cotton, but coffee and ginger only. This answer is not satisfactory, for the persons who sold the cotton were the agents of the plaintiff, as well as of the other owners. It is very material too, in determining the object of the voyage to Leith, that the plaintiff assigns as one of his reasons for abandonment, that the cargo, except the cotton, was not permitted to be landed in that port, so that he himself considered it as a port at which it was wished to trade. Upon the whole then, the plaintiff cannot say, that the voyage was .broken up at Gottenburg, because he intended to trade at Leith, neither was it broken up so as to claim for a total loss at Leith; because there tyas an actual trading there to a large amount. I am therefore of opinion, that the plaintiff ought not to recover for a total loss.

Yeates J.

A distinction is taken in Schmidt v. United Insurance Company, 1 Johns. 263, between an interdiction of commerce with the port of destination, happening after the risk commenced, and where it arose before the voyage began. In the former instance the insurers are responsible for the consequences of the interdiction; but in the latter the contract of insurance is dissolved. This agrees with 1 Emerigon, 542. A majority of the judges held that a prohibition to trade with the destined port, by means of a blockade, was a peril within the policy, and going to another port after-[291]*291wards for the purpose of delivering the goods was considered, after the abandonment, as done for the benefit'of the insurers. Livingston J. in that case says, a blockade is not like a denial of entry, for that happens after arrival, and if accompanied with no restraint or detention, cannot amount to a loss, unless the assurer be considered in all cases as warranting a right to sell the cargo, whatever may be the laws of the country to which the property is sent. It was afterwardsheld in Craig v. United Insurance Company, 6 Johns. 252, that although the insured cannot abandon quia timet, in cases: where the danger is remote and contingent, yet an interdiction of commerce with the port of discharge, happening after the commencement of the risk, authorises the assured to dis-continue the voyage, and return at the risk of the insurer. 1 Emerigon, 544.

The voyage here was evidently projected on the unsettled-state of the political horizon in the north of Europe. We-know not with certainty when the Swedish decree was enacted, forbidding vessels with cargoes of colonial produce to be-admitted to entry in the Swedish ports. The defendants’ counsel, in their argument, have treated it as if it were cotemporaneous with the Danish decree of 8th September, 1810,, in which case it must have preceded the date of the policies above one month, which contained a warranty of the, goods being free from seizures in port. '

The ship and cargo -arrived in safety at the quarantine' ground near Gottenburg, on the 8th December, 1810, but permission was refused to enter the ship or discharge the cargo. The policies were on goods on board the ship Union, from Philadelphia to Gottenburg and another port.

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Related

Morgan v. the Insurance Company of North America
4 U.S. 455 (Supreme Court, 1806)
Schmidt v. United Insurance
1 Johns. 249 (New York Supreme Court, 1806)
Craig v. United Insurance
6 Johns. 226 (New York Supreme Court, 1810)
Ferguson v. Phœnix Insurance
5 Binn. 544 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1813)

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Bluebook (online)
1 Serg. & Rawle 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krumbhaar-v-marine-insurance-pa-1815.