Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/173/430/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:57:23+00:00

Document:
Undoubtedly there was jurisdiction in admiralty in this case, in the courts below.
Although a wharfinger does not guarantee the safety of vessels coming to his wharves, he is bound to exercise reasonable diligence in ascertaining the conditions of the berths thereat, and if there is any dangerous obstruction, to remove it or to give due notice of its existence to vessels about to use the berths; at the same time, the master is bound to use ordinary care, and cannot carelessly run into danger.
This Court is unable to decide that the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia was not justified in holding on the evidence that appellants were liable for negligence and want of reasonable care, and that the master was free from contributory negligence, and therefore affirms the decree of the Court of Appeals which agreed with the trial court on the facts.
This is an appeal from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirming a decree of the Supreme Court of the District, sitting in admiralty, whereby appellees, original libelants in the cause, were awarded damages, and a cross-libel filed by appellants was dismissed. 10 App.D.C. 469. As stated by the Court of Appeals, the libel was filed by appellees against appellants for an alleged injury to their vessel, the schooner Ellen Tobin, while moored in berth at appellants' wharf on the bank of the Potomac at Georgetown, for the purpose of being loaded by and for appellants, and the injury complained of was averred to have been occasioned by appellants' negligently allowing a dangerous rock to remain in the bed of the river within the limits of the berth at the wharf which the vessel was invited to take, the obstruction being unknown to the master of the vessel, and he having been, moreover, assured by appellants, through their agent, that the depth of water in berth in front of the wharf was sufficient and that the berth was safe for the loading of the vessel.
was about two-thirds loaded, having received about four hundred tons of her cargo before signs were discovered of her distressed condition. She was then taking water so rapidly that the pumps could not relieve her, nor could the extra assistance employed by the master avail to save her from breaking and sinking in the berth. The work of loading was stopped on Saturday evening, with the intention of resuming the work of loading on the following Monday morning, and the captain of the vessel, at the time of stopping work on Saturday, made soundings around the vessel, and supposed that she was then lying all right. But on Sunday morning it was discovered that there was so much water in her that she could not be relieved by her pumps, and by 5 o'clock on the afternoon of that day, she had filled with water, and broke in the middle, and sank in her berth, where she remained, with her cargo under water, until the 1st of November, 1893, when the stone was pumped out of her, and she was then condemned as worthless, and was afterwards sold at auction for $25 to one of the owners."
Other findings of fact appeared in the opinion.
Appellants denied all negligence, and insisted that they were in no way responsible for the disaster, and in a cross-libel asserted a claim for damages caused by the fault of appellees in allowing the vessel to sink in the river in front of their wharf, and to remain there for an undue time. The evidence was voluminous and conflicting.
Undoubtedly there was jurisdiction in admiralty in the courts below, and the applicable principles of law are familiar.
Although a wharfinger does not guaranty the safety of vessels coming to his wharves, he is bound to exercise reasonable diligence in ascertaining the condition of the berths thereat, and if there is any dangerous obstruction, to remove it or to give due notice of its existence to vessels about to use the berths. At the same time, the master is bound to use ordinary care, and cannot carelessly run into danger. Philadelphia, Wilmington &c. Railroad v. Philadelphia &c. Steam Towboat Co., 23 How. 209; Sawyer v. Oakman, 7 Blatchford 290; Thompson v. N.E. R. Co., 2 B. & S. 106; S.C., Exch. (1860) 119; Mersey Docks Trustees v. Gibbs, L.R. 1 H.L. 93; Carleton v. Franconia Iron & Steel Company, 99 Mass. 216; Nickerson v. Terrell, 127 Mass. 236; Barber v. Abendroth, 102 N.Y. 406.
accustomed to occupy it, and could not discharge at that point of the wharf without doing so. . . . Even if the wharf was not public, but private, and the defendants had no title in the dock, and the concealed and dangerous obstacle was not created by them or by any human agency, they were still responsible for an injury occasioned by it to a vessel which they had induced for their own benefit to come to the wharf, and which, without negligence on the part of its owners or their agents or servants, was put in a place apparently adapted to its reception, but known by the defendants to be unsafe. This case cannot be distinguished in principle from that of the owner of land adjoining a highway who, knowing that there was a large rock or a deep pit between the traveled part of the highway and his own gate, should tell a carrier bringing goods to his house at night to drive in without warning him of the defect, and who would be equally liable for an injury sustained in acting upon his invitation whether he did or did not own the soil under the highway."
"The true rule was stated to the jury, that the master was bound to use ordinary care, and could not carelessly run into danger. We cannot say as matter of law that he was negligent because he did not examine or measure the dock and berth. It was for the jury to determine whether the conduct and conversation of the defendant excused the master from making any more particular examination than he did make, and whether, upon all the evidence, he used such care as men of ordinary prudence would use under the same circumstances."
sought permission to moor outside of it, and undertook to put the ship in position. The liability to danger was as well known to the steamer as to the wharfinger, who made no representation, and was free from negligence. The libel was dismissed, and the decree was affirmed by this Court. Panama Railroad Company v. Napier Shipping Company, 166 U. S. 280.
vessel or he ought to have informed the vessel what the condition of things was when she was invited, so that the injury might have been avoided."
"I do not doubt that there is a duty incumbent upon wharfingers in the position of the appellants towards vessels which they invite to use their berthage for the purpose of loading from or unloading upon their wharf. They are in a position to see, and are, in my opinion, bound to use reasonable diligence in ascertaining, whether the berths themselves, and the approaches to them, are in an ordinary condition of safety for vessels coming to and lying at the wharf. If the approach to the berth is impeded by an unusual obstruction, they must either remove it or, if that cannot be done, they must give due notice of it to ships coming there to use their quay."
"I do not for a moment deny that there is a duty on the part of the owner of the wharf to those whom he invites to come alongside that wharf, and a duty in which the condition of the bed of the river adjoining that wharf may be involved. But in the present case, we are not dealing, as were the learned judges in the cases which have been cited to us, with the condition of the bed of the river, in itself, dangerous -- that is to say, which is such as necessarily to involve danger to a vessel coming to use a wharf in the ordinary way -- and we are not dealing with a case of what I may call an abnormal obstruction in the river -- the existence of some foreign substance or some condition not arising from the ordinary course of navigation."
We are remitted, then, to the consideration of the facts, and as to them the rule is firmly established that successive decisions of two courts in the same case on questions of fact are not to be reversed unless clearly shown to be erroneous. Towson v. Moore, 173 U. S. 17; The Baltimore, 8 Wall. 382; The S.B. Wheeler, 20 Wall. 386; The Richmond, 103 U. S. 540. And when the evidence is conflicting, there being evidence to sustain the decree, this Court will not ordinarily interfere.
broker duly authorized, for the purpose of being loaded with a cargo of crushed stone, which would be about six hundred tons, by appellants at their wharf, to be discharged at Fortress Monroe; that the contract, which was oral, did not expressly name the number of tons to be loaded, nor guarantee the depth of water, nor the position of the vessel at the wharf, nor embody as part thereof the representations alleged to have been made in respect of the depth of the water; that there was a ridge of rock in the berth assigned to the vessel by appellants projecting above the bottom of the river and endangering her safety even when only partially loaded, and that the vessel, though staunch, strong, and seaworthy, was wrecked by grounding on that rock.
We also think that the conclusions of the Court of Appeals, set forth in its opinion, that no ordinary skill or effort on the part of the master or owners could have been exercised effectively to save the vessel from total loss, and that the injury was not increased, nor the damages enhanced, by delay in attempting to raise and remove the vessel, cannot reasonably be questioned, and that we are not required to pass on the conflicting evidence in respect of the value of the vessel at the time of the injury. In other words, it must be held that the cross-libel was properly dismissed, and that the amount of damages awarded is not open to inquiry.
Baird, carrying five hundred tons and, when loaded, drawing fourteen feet, grounded in the same berth, manifestly on a rock, and that that fact and the character of her injuries were known to appellants. There was much other evidence bearing on this point of knowledge or notice which fully sustained the Court of Appeals in its conclusion that appellants knew of the existence of the rock and its dangerous nature, or, if not, that absence of investigation amounted under the circumstances to such negligence as to impute notice.
"that there was want of due care on the part of the master and a failure to exercise proper supervision for the safety of the vessel while she was moored at the wharf for the purpose of being loaded"
and discovered no dangerous condition; that the vessel did not commence leaking until Sunday morning, and that the master thereupon did all he could to save her. It does not appear that the master was informed that the bottom was a rock bottom or that the fact was mentioned that the Baird had previously got on an obstruction in the berth, and there was nothing in what was said to lead the captain to suppose that there was danger, provided there was water enough around the vessel. He rather thought the vessel touched bottom on Saturday evening at low tide, but that, if so, did not, in itself, constitute cause for alarm. In fact, the danger was the existence of the rock in the middle of the berth under the vessel. The evidence is voluminous in respect of the extent and manner of the loading, of what passed between the parties, of the different soundings, and so on, but it is unnecessary to recapitulate it, as we are satisfied that no adequate ground exists for disturbing the result reached.

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