Mexican Petroleum Corp. v. Doane Towboat Co.

55 F.2d 32, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3686, 1932 A.M.C. 334
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJanuary 14, 1932
DocketNos. 2569, 2570
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 55 F.2d 32 (Mexican Petroleum Corp. v. Doane Towboat Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mexican Petroleum Corp. v. Doane Towboat Co., 55 F.2d 32, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3686, 1932 A.M.C. 334 (1st Cir. 1932).

Opinion

BINGHAM, Circuit Judge.

These are cross-appeals from a decree of the District Court for Massachusetts in favor of the libelant, the Mexican Petroleum Corporation, a Maine corporation and the owner of barge No. 2, in a libel in rem brought in its own behalf and in behalf of John S. Depson and Albert H. Johnson, captain and mate of the barge, against the steam tng Priscilla, to recover damages sustained in consequence of a collision with the motor vessel Brilliant, which occurred at about 6:35 on the morning of Monday, March 1, 1926, in the southern draw opening of the Chelsea Bridge, North, on the Mystic river.

The Doane Towboat Company, a Massachusetts corporation (name since changed to the Doane Commercial Towing Company), appeared and filed a claim as owner of the steam tug Priscilla and answered the libel. [34]*34It also filed a petition to bring in and implead, under Admiralty Rule 56 (28 TJSCA § 723), the Atlantic Refining Company, owner of the motor vessel Brilliant. The refining company appeared and answered the pe i ion an e. ^ . .

^ . . The ease was heard in the District Court before Judge Lowell,^ who on August 4,1927, delivered an oral opinion in which he found the steam tug Priscilla at fault in going through the southerly draw opening instead of the northerly one, and solely at fault for the collision. He ruled and found that the Mystie river, including the passageways under the Chelsea Bridge, North, was a narrow channel, and further ruled and found that, if it was not a narrow channel, there was no negligence on the part of the Brilliant, and ordered the petition impleading the Atlantic Refining Company, the owner of the Brilliant, dismissed.

Having made'this interlocutory decree, he sent the case to an assessor to ascertain the damages suffered by the libelant.

May 26, 1928, the assessor filed his first report. The court allowed certain items of damage found by the assessor, disallowed eertain others, and on August 2, 1928, sent the case back to the assessor instructing him to make certain other findings as to damages. December 2, 1929, the assessor filed his sec-1 ond report, and the libelant and the Doane Towboat Company having-filed exceptions thereto, the court, after hearing, overruled them. In his final decree he ordered that the assessor’s findings, amounting to a total damage of $5,192.71, made up as follows, be allowed the libelant:

—together with interest on said sum from April 15, 1926, until the date of the decree, amounting to $1,428, together with costs of $473.44, or a total of $7,094.15.

He furfher ordered that the Atlantie ^ fining Company recover $148.26, costs from ^le Doane Towboat Company and the Mex-jean pe|;roleum Corporation; and that the libelant recover the sum of $7,094.15 against Hie steam tug Priscilla or her stipulators for vaiue_

He disallowed the assessor’s findings comPose“ as follows:

He also disallowed the assessor’s alternative finding of damages due the appellant of $16,558.02.

From decree both Mexiean Petroleum Corporation and the Doane Commereial Towing Company appealed, each assigning varf0usem>rs in the ruhngs and findings of the court with reference to the question liability and various items of damage al- . , , lowed and disallowed.

The libelant’s barge No. 2 was about 200 feet long and 30 feet beam. She was of steel construction and shaped much as an ordinary boat. She had no means of propulsion, had a fixed rudder, and was moved from place to place, in the prosecution of her occupation, by other vessels. The oo eupation in which she was engaged at the time of the collision was the supplying of bunker-oil to steam vessels and other vessels and structures requiring such oil in Boston Harbor.

[35]*35On the morning of March 1, 1926, at about 6 o’clock, barge No. 2, while at her berth at Sargent's Wharf in Boston Harbor, was made fast, in the location of her bow, by lines on her port side, to the port side or bow of the steam tug Priscilla owned by the Doane Towboat Company, which was under contract to tow tho barge. The Priscilla then proceeded to tow or push Barge 2 stem foremost to the wharf of the Merrimack Chemical Company in Everett to supply oil to tho steam ship Patria then lying at that wharf. The barge had a capacity of 8,500 barrels and a.t this time had on board a cargo of 6.400 barrels of oil and was drawing about 8 feet of water forward and aft. She had a crew of two men. It was good weather and broad daylight. To reach her destination in Everett on the Mystic river, tho Priscilla and barge had to pass through the draw of the Chelsea Bridge, North, located at the month of the -river. The bridge of which the draw was a part provided a highway connecting Chelsea at its northerly end with Charlestown at its southerly end. When the draw was opened it swung on a pivot located on a pier situated at the center of the stream as it passed under the bridge. This pier was 525 feet long and narrow. The distance from its easterly or harbor end to the pivot was 300 feet. The passageways on either side of this pier were each of the width of 125 feet. The highway leading over the bridge at its southerly end and for a long distance south was of such a height as to obstruct tho view of vessels coming up the harbor to the draw from, the south and of vessels coming down the Mystic river to the draw until they , reached the south opening of the draw. The course of the Mystic river above the west entrance to the draw, after rounding a sharp curve, -was iu a southwesterly direction.

On the morning in question the steatn tug Priscilla with the barge, on reaching’ the drawbridge, entered the southerly passageway and when the stem of the barge had reached or nearly reached the westerly end of the pier, at -which time the Priscilla was in the neighborhood of the pivot of the pier, the barge came into collision with the Brilliant which had come down the river and had rounded tho curve to- enter tho south opening. Tho bow of the Brilliant struck the stem of the barge, then extending out into and partly across the passageway, on the port side.

The Priscilla was 80 feet long, her pilot house was about 15 feet aft of her bow, and the distance from her bow to the stem of barg-e No. 2 was about 160 feet, making the pilot house about 175 feet back from tbe stem of the barge. She had no lookout forward of her pilot house nor upon the stem of the barge which she was propelling stem forward. The captain and mate of the Priscilla were in the pilot house.

As the Priscilla and her tow approached the bridge, the Priscilla blew two long and two short blasts,'indicating her intention to-enter the draw, and received the usual reply from the draw bridge of three whistles. As the Priscilla entered or was about to enter the south passageway at the easterly end of the draw’, her master claims to- have seen the Brilliant some 600 feet above its westerly end, apparently stopped; he testified that the Priscilla then proceeded to go through the draw, but that, after entering and observing the Brilliant was coming forward, he blew one blast indicating that he was to keep to his starboard; that he then reversed full speed astern, blew three blasts, and afterward blew a danger signal.

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Bluebook (online)
55 F.2d 32, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3686, 1932 A.M.C. 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mexican-petroleum-corp-v-doane-towboat-co-ca1-1932.