Ogden v. General Mutual Insurance

2 Duer 204
CourtThe Superior Court of New York City
DecidedMay 28, 1853
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2 Duer 204 (Ogden v. General Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering The Superior Court of New York City primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ogden v. General Mutual Insurance, 2 Duer 204 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1853).

Opinion

By the Court. Bosworth, J.

The construction given to this policy by the charge to the jury, treated it as a policy upon freight as an integral subject, and not upon the several items of freight upon the distinct and separate parts of the cargo shipped by different shippers. The freight insured was treated as a totality, and the jury were instructed, that, if the undamaged goods, instead of being transhipped in other vessels, had been retained and carried on in the St. Patrick, “there could be no recovery in this action; the ship would then have earned a part of her freight, and there could not have been a total loss.”

The defendants, upon this motion, are entitled to a just and full application of that rule of construction. It was one for which they contended at the trial, and the plaintiff, instead of controverting or excepting to it, sought to bring himself within it, by showing a loss of freight on every part of the cargo, total in judgment of law.

The jury were also instructed that “there was no right to abandon the voyage on account of the injury to the ship.”

The opinion delivered in the Court of Appeals states that “ there was no obligation to abandon the voyage, nor had the assured, or their agent, a right to do so, by reason of the injuries sustained by the vessel, unless they extended to at least one-half of her value.”

It is proper to observe here that the cause was before that court on a demurrer to the declaration, which admitted the facts stated in the latter to be true. How far the facts established at the tidal correspond in substance and effect with those which the Court of Appeals regarded as admitted by the [214]*214demurrer, it may be necessary to consider, in respect to some of the points made and argued in this motion.

The opinion referred to further states, that “ the declaration contains, in general terms, a sufficient allegation of an abandonment-of the voyage, and a consequent loss of freight within the terms of the policy. It would, nevertheless, be invalid, if the statement of the particulars of the loss showed that such loss was in fact partial.”

The opinion of that court, and the charge to the jury, concur in the proposition, that the assured had no right to abandon the voyage, by reason of the injuries sustained by the vessel.

It must be also taken as true, that the ship was repaired, and sailed within a reasonable time for the original port of destination ; and was repaired with a view to obtain and carry, and did carry a full cargo on freight to that port, from the port of necessity at which the repairs were made. She might have retained, and carried forward the undamaged goods. And the jury were instructed that, if she had retained and carried them forward, the loss of freight would have been partial, and not actually total, and no recovery could have been had in this action.

If this view be correct, and if the true rule as to the undamaged goods was stated to the jury, then it follows that, on the state of facts then existing, it depended entirely on the arbitrary volition of the assured whether the loss should be absolutely total or only partial, and not upon the question whether he had been prevented by the perils insured against, from entitling himself to the freight of some part of the cargo.

He had no right to abandon the voyage on account of the injuries to the ship. Those injuries were repaired, with the view of going to, and she did within a reasonable time sail for, the original port of destination, and carried and delivered a full cargo at that port. She could have carried these goods; and had she carried them, there could have been no recovery by the plaintiff. Freight might have been earned by carrying them in this ship.

The election to not so carry them, it is claimed, subjects the defendants to a liability for the amount insured; while an elec[215]*215tion to so carry, and having thus carried them, would have exonerated the defendants from all liability.

The practical question, as the cause was submitted to the jury, is this: Does, or can the liability of the defendants be made to depend upon the will of the assured, or does it depend upon facts, irrespective of what his will or election may be, with reference to such facts?

To answer this question understandingly, it is important to ascertain what is the precise nature of the contract of insurance on freight. Where the insurance is against actual total loss only, it is an undertaking that if the shipowner is prevented from earning any freight by any of the perils insured against, the underwriters will make good the loss on freight to the amount of their subscription.

In the case of a valued policy on freight, and an actual total loss, the underwriters, as a general rule, must pay the sum named in the policy.

But the underwriters do not contract that the voyage shall yield a profit to the assured, nor that it shall not cost him more to deliver the cargo, according to the terms of the bills of lading, than the aggregate gross amount of freight payable on the delivery of the cargo, or the sum named in the policy as the measure of the underwriters’ liability in the case of total loss.

They contract that a technical total loss of the vessel shall not be occasioned during the voyage by any of the perils insured against; or, such an event not happening, that the assured shall not be prevented by such perils from transporting and delivering some part of her cargo, in specie, at the port of destination.

If the perils insured against have neither caused a technical' total loss of the vessel, nor prevented the carrying and délivery of some part of the cargo in specie, so as to entitle the assured to freight, then the underwriters are not liable, for the reason that some freight has been earned, or might have been, if the assured, or their agents,'had performed their duty. And they cannot make their omission to perform their duty the ground of liability on the part of the underwriters.

The underwriters do not undertake to indemnify them against a loss of freight resulting from the non-performance of duty, but only against an actual total loss of freight, which the perils [216]*216insured against shall have prevented them from earning. With the cost, to the assured, of earning it, the underwriters have no concern.

To avoid misconstruction, it is proper to remark, that by the cost of earning freight, it is not intended to intimate that the proportion of losses arising from the perils insured against and forming a subject of general average, properly chargeable on freight, is a matter that does not concern the underwriters, or that it is not to be regarded in determining whether that and other losses chargeable on freight only, may or may not make a case of actual total loss of freight.

When the ship becomes changed, by necessity, during the voyage, and the goods are sent forward by the master in a substituted" ship, in the discharge of a duty for the benefit of the owner of the goods at an increased freight, the increased freight is a charge upon the goods, and must be paid by the insurer of X the cargo. (Mumford v. Commercial Ins. Co., 5 L. R. 262; Searle v. Scovell, 4 J. Ch. R. 218; Dodge v. Marine Ins. Co., 17 Mass. 471: Hugg v. Augusta Ins. and Banking Co., 7 How. U. S. R. 695-609.)

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Bluebook (online)
2 Duer 204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ogden-v-general-mutual-insurance-nysuperctnyc-1853.