Case ID: f_103/html/0685-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

SMITH et al. v. ELMER E. WOOD TRANSP. CO.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    May 8, 1900.)
    No. 908.
    Admiralty — -Appeal—Requiiung Amendment of Pleadings.
    Where tho pleadings in a suit in admiralty are so deficient that the court on an appeal cannot properly apply the evidence in the record, or justly determine the rights of the parties, but there is apparently no design to suppress the facts, the decree below will be set aside, and the case remanded for the filing of new pleadings.
    
      Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
    John D. Grace, for appellants.
    Chas. S. Eice (B. B. Montgomery, on the brief), for appellee.
    Before PARDEE and SHELBY, Circuit Judges, and MAXEY, District Judge.
   PER CURIAM.

The pleadings and proof in the record are such that we cannot, we think, justly make a final disposition of the case. The libel does not state the case with such fullness as to conform to the rules. This failure, however, to fully state the case, in the absence of a design to suppress material facts, should not he fatal to the right to relief. The Syracuse, 12 Wall. 167, 173, 20 L. Ed. 382. The respondent, in the evidence offered, relies on the fact that the alleged salvage services were rendered under a contract; hut the contract is not fully stated in the answer, nor does the evidence clearly show the terms of the contract. Before making a final disposition of the case, we have concluded that it would he proper to require the libelants to amend their libel, and the respondent will he permitted to amend the answer, and both parties will he allowed to take additional evidences The decree of the district court dismissing the libel is vacated and set aside, and the case is remanded to that court for further proceedings in conformity to this opinion. One-half of the costs in this court will be paid by each of the parties.