Trafikaktiebolaget Grangesberg Okelosund v. Wilkens

4 F.2d 577, 1925 A.M.C. 771, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 963
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 18, 1925
DocketNo. 1226
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 4 F.2d 577 (Trafikaktiebolaget Grangesberg Okelosund v. Wilkens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trafikaktiebolaget Grangesberg Okelosund v. Wilkens, 4 F.2d 577, 1925 A.M.C. 771, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 963 (S.D. Tex. 1925).

Opinion

HUTCHESON, District Judge.

This is a libel to recover from the defendants sums deducted by them in an aeconnting made by them with libelant, under the terms of a charter party attached to the libel, which charter party the defendants say authorized these deductions, and which charter party the libelant declares authorized none of them. The charter party provided for the chartering of the vessel Laponia to Wilkens & Biehl, the defendants, and, in addition to many other provisions, provided as follows:

In clause 1, that the steamer should proceed to Houston and (or) Galveston, and, there having been provided to carry a full cargo of cotton, shall load from the charterers from such wharf or dock as .they may select, and if afterwards required by them to shift from one terminal to another at any port more than once, they to pay the ordinary expenses of towing, a full and complete cargo.

In clause 2, charterers are to pay for loading cargo and compressing cotton at load[578]*578ing port, but no other charges, and the stevedore to be appointed by them is to load the steamer under the captain’s direction.

In clause 3, charterers to have the option of loading at any two of the above ports, they paying all extra port charges incurred at the second port.

In clause 4, all ordinary disbursements at port of loading to be paid by the charterers, who are to be reimbursed for the-amount thereof, with 2% per cent, commission thereon.

In clause 5, the customs and usages at the ports of loading and discharging to be observed, unless otherwise expressed.

In clause 20, owners to pay charterers two shillings per net register ton, in consideration of which charterers agree to pay port charges at loading ports on outward cargo, viz. tonnage dues, custom house fees, levee dues, quarantine fees, and cost of fumigating, wharfage, watching, and outward pilot-age.

' The .charges paid by the agents, and deducted in their accounting with the vessel, are as follows:

Pilotage from wharf No. 8, Houston, to Anderson’s dock, September 20, 1923..........................$ 20.00
Pilotage from Long Reach pier, Houston, to Sinclair docks, September 26, 1923 ........................... 20.00
Pilotage from Houston to Galveston, September 26, 1923............... 42.50
Pilotage from Bolivar to pier No. 38, Galveston, September 26, 1923....., 20.00
Boat hire for shifting from pier No.
8, Houston, to Long Reach pier, September 26, 1923 ............... 8.00
Boat hire releasing from Long Reach pier to Galveston, September 26, 1923 ............................ 8.00
Boat hire for releasing from pier No. 38, Galveston, to “Ca”............ 5.00
Releasing lines and mooring ship at Galveston, September 26, 1923..... 10.00
Inspection and certificate of loading at Houston and Galveston, September 20, 1923..................... 35.00
Marine branch of Houston Cotton Exchange September 29, 1923....... 83.22
Marine branch of Galveston Cotton Exchange September 29, 1923 ..... 66.90
Towage, assisting vessel off dock, pier No. 38, September 29, 1923 ........ 40.00
Towage, assisting vessel to dock, pier No. 38, Galveston, September 26,
1923 ............................. 40.00
Shed hire, Houston Gompress Company, September 27, 1923........... 50.00
Shed hire, Galveston Wharf Company, September 28, 1923............... 150.00
Dockage, Houston Compress Company, September 27, 1923...........* 140.75
Dockage, Galveston Wharf Company, September 28, 1923 ............... 281.50
Total $1,020.12

The libelant insists that these various items should have been paid by the charterers, either on the ground that they were loading expenses (clause 2), or that they were extra port charges (clause 3), or that they were payable under clause 20 of the charter party as port charges, which the charterers had agreed to pay.

The defendants point to the fact that the charter declares (clause 2) that the charterers are to pay for loading cargo and compressing cotton at loading port, but no other charges, and that it also provided (clausq 4), “All ordinary disbursements at the port of loading to be paid by charterers, who are to be reimbursed for the amount thereof,” and they declare that none of the items are either loading charges or extra port charges, or included in clause 20, but are ordinary disbursements at the port of loading, which, under clause 4 of the charter party, the vessel agrees to pay.

Upon first inspection these respective clauses relied upon by the litigants appear conflicting, but an analysis of them will, I think, make it clear that no real conflict exists. What the charter does is to set out those things which are the primary obligation of the charterers, and those which are the primary obligation of the ship, and this it does with clearness and precision. The obligations primarily imposed upon the charterers are loading and compressing cotton, and extra port charges at the second port. All other disbursements, expenses, etc., are primarily chargeable to the ship and her owners.

This being settled by the .preliminary provisions of the charter, clause 20 provides that, in consideration of the owner paying the charterer a fixed sum, 2 shillings per net registered ton, the charterer agrees to discharge some of those obligations already primarily fixed by the charter upon the owner, to wit, port charges at loading ports on outward cargo, and, if the charter had stopped there, the case for libelant would present no difficulty, since the charter provides in clause 5 that the customs and usages at the ports of loading and discharging should be observed, and under the proof in this case all of the.charges made at the two ports were made in accordance with the customs and usages of those ports. And this the defendants -are bound to admit, for, if they had not been authorized and proper expenditures by the customs of the ports, they would not have been authorized to lay out the moneys in the first place, and therefore could not recover them back in the second.

[579]*579The first difficulty in the ease arises out of the question whether the “viz.” and what follows it should he given the effect of a videlicet in pleading to limit the agreement of the charterers to the assumption of the specific disbursements there set down, or whether the word should he treated as used in the sense of “such as,” or “for example,” illustrative, hut not exclusively furnishing examples of the kind referred to, rather than limiting to the particular charges named. Even in pleading the use of a videlicet varies. As Lord Hobart says: “A videlicet is a kind of interpreter. It may work a restriction, when the former words are not express and special, though the former words, by construction of law, would have had a larger sense if the videlicet had not been.”

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Bluebook (online)
4 F.2d 577, 1925 A.M.C. 771, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trafikaktiebolaget-grangesberg-okelosund-v-wilkens-txsd-1925.