Star.
London, England, 1819-04-15 00:00:00

EIIRENSTORM V. INNES.

This was an action upon a Policy of Insurance, on
goods on board the Swedish ship Charlotte, oh a
voyage from Copenhagt to London. Loss by perils
of the sea, and interest averred, to be in the plaintiff.
The goods insured were three'boxes of gold watches,•
and four hundred pounds weight of cobalt a metallic
substance, the produce of the mines of Sweden, and
used by potters in the process of glazing china and
earthenware, and the whole value of the goods in-
sured was stated to be LEG.

The case proved on the part of the plaintiff was
this :—The plaintiif, a Swedish subject, had been a
merchant at Gottenburgh, and in the month of July,
1816, he consigned the goods in question to his agent
in,London from Copenhagen, on board the Charlotta,
Of which, in 1815, he had been 'the owner. It seemed
to be admitted that the cobalt had been smuggled
froth Sweden to Denmark, without paying the cus-
toms duties of the former country. The thip in the
course of her voyage encountered tempesttio'ns wea-
ther;and having sprung a leak at the end of six days,
she was obliged to be abandoned by her crew, and in
the result she completely foundered, and the goods in
question were lost, and to recover the loss, the present
action was brought against the underwriters.
The defence set up was, a conspiracy on the part of
the plaintiff, entered into between him, the Captain,
and mate of the vessel, and a person named Broder-
som, -a native of-Copenhagen, to defraud the under-
writers ; first, by making a pretended consignment of
the goods mentioned in the declaration ; and second,
by wilfully sinking the ship at sea. To support thii
defence the principal witness examined was Broder-
sorn, from -hose evidence it appeared that he had
been a.merchant at Copenhagen ; that he had married
a widow who kept a tavern in that city, from whom
he had been divorced, and that he had since married
a woman M England ; that he was acquainted with
the plaintiff ; that in the year 1816 the plaintiff and
be. entered into a speculation of a pretended consign-
ment of a quantity of cobalt to England, by making
up certain boxes which contained nothing, and which
were to be sent to London on board the Charlotta,
which ship,i t was agreed, should be sunk at sea, and
that insurances should be effected in London upon this
supposed. consignment ; that the Captain and mate
had become parties to this arrangement, and that for
siaking the ship the former was to receive £lOO, and
the latter £5O ; that he lt.;cl hi ni,ell effected insurances
uponbls share in the adventure to the amount of se-
veral..litindted pewit's; that after the loss had hap-
pened hi puisuanceof this conspiracy, he had come to
London, and in consequence of the compunctions bi-
hisconscieace he communicated the fraudulent nature
of the trtmsaction to Mr. Isiacs, the Jew Attorney:
In confirmation of this man's testimony,it appeared,
that the Captain of the ship was not produced, and
tkat other .per Sons with might have rebutted his evi-
dance wert not forthcoming. lint the mate of the
Charlotta (who was exami.',ed) denied any share in the
conspiracy ;:aitsl it appeared also, that the plaintiff,
who was represented in .one of the letters given in-
evidence to be a great rogue, was a man of some sub-
stance, and that the pet will of Whom he was supposed
to haveliOught the cobalt-was a traveller for a mer-
cantile house in St&lchclm, and had offered.merchan-
tlize: cf'that description for sale at Copenhagen. The
case went to the Jury under the Learned Jtidge's di-
rection, and they immediately fu'und a verdict for the
ezLniant.

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