Northland Navigation Co. v. American Merchant Marine Insurance

214 A.D. 571, 212 N.Y.S. 541, 1925 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10568
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 4, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 214 A.D. 571 (Northland Navigation Co. v. American Merchant Marine Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northland Navigation Co. v. American Merchant Marine Insurance, 214 A.D. 571, 212 N.Y.S. 541, 1925 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10568 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

Dowling, J.:

This action was brought to recover the sum of $45,000, with interest, on a valued policy of marine insurance issued by defendant to plaintiff covering losses on the steamship Mohegan, as noted below. This policy dated June 27, 1919, contained the following provisions among others:

“On disbursements and/or salvage or other charges and/or liabilities in respect of general average valued at $45,000.

“ Free from all average but to pay the deficiency arising from loss, damage, salvage, and charges caused by perils insured against such deficiency being the difference between the net value of the property which arrives at destination and the amount of the disbursements, etc., hereby insured. * * *

“ This risk to commence from the time the disbursements, etc., are paid, or liability to pay is incurred until 30 days after safe arrival at destination, the seaworthiness of the vessel being admitted.”

“To be insured, lost or not lost, at and from Paramaribo to Rio de Janeiro, but to sail within ten (10) days from June 20th, 1919. * * *

“ Held covered in case of any breach of warranty as to cargo, [573]*573trade, locality or date of sailing, provided notice be given and any additional premium required be agreed immediately after receipt of advices of breach or proposed breach by owners.”

The following facts are undisputed: The steamship Mohegan, owned by the plaintiff, left the port of New York on or about the 3d day of February, 1919, with a general cargo, bound for •Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, Brazil. Before leaving New York she had arranged to call at Barbadoes for the purpose of coaling. The ship reached Barbadoes in due course and after coaling, left that port, bound for Rio de Janeiro. On this voyage the ship met with such heavy weather, high seas and gales, and was so damaged thereby that she had to put in at Paramaribo, Dutch Guinea. She reached that port on February 24, 1919. At the port of Paramaribo repairs to the vessel were made as ordered by the marine surveyor. While engaged in making these repairs plaintiff paid out and incurred liability for large sums of money for unloading and reloading the cargo, storing it in warehouses, maintenance of officers and crew, returning a large part of the crew and some of its officers to New York port, and for charges, coal and other necessary expenses. These charges and disbursements, under maritime law, became a lien on the cargo enforcible as such as a condition of delivery of the cargo to its respective owners at the port of destination. While the Mohegan was at the port of Paramaribo, the defendant delivered its insurance policy to plaintiff, whereby defendant insured the plaintiff in the sum of $45,000 on the aforesaid lien and interest of the plaintiff in the steamship Mohegan and the cargo against loss by fire.

The charges and disbursements hereinbefore referred to constituted proper general average charges ” and a hen on the cargo on board of the steamship, payable to plaintiff from the cargo or its owners on the safe arrival of the cargo at the point of destination. The insurance in question covered such “ general average.”

The Mohegan left Paramaribo on the voyage to Rio de Janeiro on a date which is one of the disputed questions of fact in the case, plaintiff claiming it started its trip there on June thirtieth, but met with a mishap to her steering gear which forced her to return, the same occurring again on the following day, and the vessel finally sailing for Rio de Janeiro on July third; the defendant claiming that the steamship did not sail from Paramaribo until July third, and never was ready to sail before that date.

The Mohegan arrived at Rio de Janeiro on July 31, 1919. On August nineteenth she went alongside the dock and after some cargo had been discharged, an explosion took place and the ship and the cargo remaining therein were burned to the water’s edge. [574]*574As a result plaintiff claims the lien for general average valued at $45,000 was wholly lost. Due notice of the loss was given to the defendant and payment was demanded, which was refused.

The captain of the Mohegan testified that the vessel was lying in the harbor on the morning of the nineteenth, waiting for permission to come alongside a dock and get a place to unload, which was finally accomplished about ten o’clock, and that after taking out six or seven slings, as I am told by men that were there, there was a heavy explosion causing a fire.” The captain testified he was not there when the men started to discharge cargo, and he only knew what his officers and men told him, and did not know personally how much cargo was taken out of her. ■

The questions involved on this appeal are:

(1) Was there a breach of the warranty that the vessel would sail from Paramaribo within ten days from June 20, 1919, and was the implied finding of the jury that there had been no such breach warranted by the testimony?

(2) Was there a total loss within the meaning of the policy, so as to excuse the plaintiff, this being a valued policy, from proof of the actual loss sustained?

There was a subsidiary defense of unseaworthiness at the time of the departure from New York, thus making the expenses incurred at Paramaribo not those of a general average nature; but the finding of the jury against defendant upon this point is not pressed upon this appeal.

As to the first question, the meaning of the expression to sail ” is well settled by judicial construction. In 26 Cyc. 639, the general rule as gathered from the authorities, is thus stated: “ A warranty ‘ to sail ’ on a particular day requires that the vessel be got under way in complete readiness for the voyage with the purpose of proceeding thereon without further delay at the port of departure. If it is intended or is necessary that the vessel stop for any purpose before proceeding to sea, she has not sailed within the meaning of the warranty. But if after breaking ground in complete readiness and with intent to proceed, the vessel is detained by some unforeseen cause, the warranty is complied with. An unforeseen cause preventing a vessel from commencing the voyage at the time named does not excuse the non-compliance with the warranty.”

In Pittegrew v. Pringle (3 B. & Ad. 514) Lord Tenterden, C. J., said: The general principle of the decisions is this; that if a ship quits her moorings and removes, though only to a short distance, being perfectly ready to proceed upon her voyage, and is by some subsequent occurrence detained, that is nevertheless a sailing; but it is otherwise, if, at the time when she quits her moorings and [575]*575hoists her sails, she is not in a condition for completing her sea voyage.”

In Union Insurance Co. v. Tysen (3 Hill, 118) Mr. Justice Cowen said of the difference between departure and sailing (at p. 126): Departure is a word of different meaning. It imports an effectually leaving of the place behind. If the vessel be detained or driven back, though she may have sailed, there is no departure. (Moir v. The Royal Exchange Assurance Company, 6 Taunt. 241; 4 Camp. 84, S. C., 3 Maule & Selw. 461, S. C.) * * *

In short, the least locomotion with readiness of equipment and clearance satisfies a warranty to sail.”

In Roelandts v. Harrison (23 L. J.

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214 A.D. 571, 212 N.Y.S. 541, 1925 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10568, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northland-navigation-co-v-american-merchant-marine-insurance-nyappdiv-1925.