Case ID: f_271/html/0474-01.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

THE LAKE MONROE. MATHESON et al. v. UNITED STATES.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit.
    March 15, 1921.)
    No. 1484.
    Admiralty @=>118—Decision of trial court on conflicting oral evidence not reversed, unless clearly wrong.
    Where' the evidence, in a collision case was in hopeless and irreconcilable conflict, and nearly all tbe testimony was oral, so that the District Judge had an opportunity of judging the credibility and accuracy of the witnesses, the decision of the trial court will not be reversed, unless it is clearly wrong.
    Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts; James M. Morton, Judge.
    Libel by John J. Matheson and others against the steamer, Lake Monroe; the United States, claimant. From a decree dismissing the libel (270 Fed. 858), libelants appeal.
    Affirmed.
    Edward E. Blodgett, of Boston, Mass. (Foye M. Murphy and Blodgett, Jones, Burnham & Bingham, all of Boston, Mass., on the brief), for appellants.
    Louis Goldberg, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., of Boston, Mass. (Daniel J. Gallagher, U. S. Atty., of Boston, Mass., on the brief), for the United States.
    Before BINGHAM, JOHNSON, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

The evidence in this collision case is in hopeless and irreconcilable conflict. None of the differing accounts of the accident seem intrinsically probable. Nearly all the testimony was oral, and the judge of the District Court had the opportunity of judging the credibility and accuracy of the'witnesses, it is therefore a case in which to apply the principle that the decision of the trial court should not be reversed, unless it is clearly wrong. The Parthian (C. C.) 48 Fed. 564. We are satisfied with the opinion and the conclusion of the learned District Judge.

The decree of the District Court is affirmed, with costs to the appellee in this court.