Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/210/95/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 06:15:01+00:00

Document:
The decree of the district court in a proceeding for limitation of liability adjudging that the petitioner is entitled to the limitation and declaring that one class of claims cannot be proved against the fund and remitting all questions concerning other claims for proof prior to final decree is interlocutory, and an appeal to the Circuit Court does not lie therefrom, but from the subsequent decree adjudicating all the claims filed against the fund.
This Court will not disturb the concurrent findings of fact of both the courts below unless 80 unwarranted by the evidence as to be clearly erroneous, and a finding that the rate of speed of a vessel on the high seas during a fog was immoderate under the international rules will not be disturbed because based on the conceptions of immoderate speed prevailing in the United States courts and not on those prevailing in the courts of the country to which the vessel belonged.
In a proceeding to limit liability instituted by the owners of a foreign vessel lost on the high seas, the right to exemption must be determined by the law as administered in the courts of the United States.
to be produced by the court is to offer secondary evidence or ask for dismissal of the proceeding; they cannot proceed and ask the court to decide the case not according to the proof, but on presumption of wrongdoing and suppression of evidence.
Under the circumstances of this case, the fault of the officers and crew of the steamship La Bourgogne resulting in collision and loss of the vessel and its passengers, crew, and cargo was not committed with the fault and privity of its owner, so as to deprive it of the right to a limitation of liability under §§ 4282, 4289, Rev.Stat.
Mere negligence of the officers and crew of a vessel, pure and simple and of itself, does not necessarily establish the existence on the part of the owner of the vessel of privity and knowledge within the meaning of the limited liability act of 1851 as reenacted in §§ 4282-4287, Rev.Stat. The Main, 152 U. S. 122, distinguished.
Under § 4405, Rev.Stat., the regulations of the supervising inspectors and the supervising inspector general when approved by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to carrying out the provisions of §§ 4488, 4489, Rev.Stat., have the force of law, and the owner of a foreign vessel is required to comply therewith by the Act of August 7, 1882, c. 441, 22 Stat. 346, and, even if such regulations are inconsistent with the statute, compliance therewith does not amount to a violation of the statute and deprive the owner of the right to a limitation of liability on account of privity with the negligence causing the loss.
In the case of a foreign vessel making regular trans-oceanic trips, the freight for the voyage to be surrendered by the owner in a proceeding for limitation of liability when the vessel is lost on the return trip is that for the distinct sailing between the regular termini, and does not include the freight earned on the outward trip.
Notwithstanding that, where a contract of transportation is unperformed and no freight is earned, no freight is to be surrendered, such freight and passage money as are received under absolute agreement that they shall be retained by the carrier, in any event, must be surrendered by the owner of a vessel seeking to limit his liability under the provisions of §§ 4283-4287, Rev.Stat.
An annual subsidy contract made by a foreign government and a steamship company for carrying the mails was held under its conditions not to be divisible, and no part thereof constituted freight for the particular voyage on which the vessel was lost which should be surrendered by the owner in a proceeding for limitation of liability.
Where the law of the state to which a vessel belongs gives a right of action for wrongful death occurring on such vessel while on the high seas, such right of action is enforceable in the admiralty courts of the United States against the fund arising in a proceeding to limit liability, The Hamilton, 207 U. S. 398, and the law of France does give such right of action for wrongful death.
enforce such claims is based on the right of action given by the law of the country to which the vessel belongs, the question of whether the vessel was in fault and the fund liable must be determined by the law of the United States courts. The duty to enforce the cause of action given by the foreign law does not carry with it the obligation to give the proof the same effect as it would have in the courts of that country if the effect is different from that which such proof would have in the courts of the United States.
Where there is an honest controversy as to what the pending freight for the voyage includes, and in the absence of contumacious conduct, a limitation of liability should not be refused because the petitioner has not, pending the determination of such controversy, actually paid over to the trustee the entire amount of the pending freight as finally adjudicated.
Where, on writ and cross-writ of certiorari, the judgment is affirmed, neither party prevails, and each must pay his own costs in this Court.
the company in the steamship and her pending freight was alleged to be only about $100, the value of articles saved from the wreck. A list of the pending suits was annexed. It was prayed that a trustee be appointed, to whom the interest of the company in the steamship and her pending freight might be transferred. A monition warning all persons having claims by reason of the collision to prove the same within a time to be fixed was asked, as also that a commissioner be appointed to take such proof, and that the prosecution of all other actions because of the collision be restrained. Finally, it was prayed that the company be decreed not to be liable for the loss of La Bourgogne, or, if responsible, its liability, in conformity to the statute, be limited to the property surrendered.
reported that claims aggregating more than $2,000,000 had been presented. Most were for losses occasioned by death, and the others were for personal injuries and for loss of baggage or other personal effects.
Without stating details, it suffices to say that the petitioner challenged the validity and amount of the claims reported. The claimants traversed the petition for limitation of liability, charging that the collision had been solely caused by the fault of La Bourgogne in going at an immoderate rate of speed in a dense fog, and that such fault was with the privity and knowledge of the petitioner. This latter was based on averments that the petitioner had negligently failed to make and enforce adequate regulations to prevent its steamers being run at an immoderate speed in a fog, that it had knowledge that its steamers were habitually so run, and because La Bourgogne was not fully manned and equipped as required by law, had no watertight bulkheads, and was not furnished with boats or proper disengaging apparatus, as required by the laws of the United States. It was further charged that the petitioner was not entitled to a limitation of liability, because it had not actually surrendered the freight pending, and besides had not surrendered the sum of a subsidy given by the French government for carrying the mails and for other services.
to New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,480.70 "
For freight collected on the same sailing . . . . 14,088.95 "
in which La Bourgogne was lost. . . . . . . . 100,703.08 "
For freight on the same sailing . . . . . . . . . 12,716.43 "
"First, that the prayer for limitation should be granted; second, that claims for loss of life should be excluded from consideration in this proceeding; third, that the Bourgogne was to blame for the collision; fourth, that claims other than those for loss of life be referred to the commissioner 'to take testimony as to the amount of such claims, and report the same to this Court, together with his opinion, with all convenient speed;' fifth, that the petitioner has duly surrendered its interest in the Bourgogne and her pending freight by the transfer made to the trustee, and that the value of such interest extends no further than the value of the lifeboats and life rafts."
A decree was entered conformably to these views. A few weeks thereafter, the court permitted the S. S. White Dental Company to file a claim for the value of certain merchandise shipped under a bill of lading, alleged to be of the value of $17,108.40.
The commissioner heard testimony concerning the validity and the amount of the respective claims. On May 9, 1904, the commissioner filed his report. The claim of the S. S. White Dental Company was disallowed on the ground that La Bourgogne was in all respects seaworthy at the time of her sailing on the voyage on which she was lost, and that, in consequence of the provisions of the Harter Act, the claim in question being for merchandise shipped as freight under a bill of lading, no recovery could be had. The remaining claims, noted in the margin, [Footnote 2] might be had as for baggage lost by the sinking of the steamship.
In thus deciding, the commissioner followed the ruling of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit made in The Kensington, 94 F. 885, in which it was held that the exemption from liability conferred by the Harter Act did not embrace baggage when not shipped as cargo. Obviously, also, the commissioner was of the opinion, for like reasons, that Rev.Stat. § 4281, exempting a master and the owner of a vessel from liability for the value of precious metals, jewelry, etc., unless written notice of the character of such articles be given and the same be entered on a bill of lading, was also inapplicable. The petitioner excepted to so much of the report as allowed the claims, and the S. S. White Dental Company excepted to the disallowance of its claim. These exceptions were overruled, and the report was confirmed.
"That all claims which have been filed in this proceeding on behalf of persons for damages for negligence resulting in loss of life caused by said collision be, and the same are hereby, disallowed and excluded from the consideration of the commissioner in this proceeding."
"That the steamer La Bourgogne . . . was in fault and to blame in reference to the collision in question in that she was proceeding at an immoderate rate of speed in a fog, contrary to law, and that the petitioner, the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, is liable for the damages caused by the said collision to each of the claimants whose claims have been reported upon . . . [and which have been] confirmed in the amounts so reported."
"That the petitioner is entitled to limit its liability for such damages as are decreed as aforesaid to the amount of the value of the said steamer and her freight for the voyage, and that there is not to be included as going to make up said amount either the freight or passenger money received by the petitioner for the trip of said steamer La Bourgogne from Havre to New York, or for the trip from, New York to Havre, during which voyage said collision occurred, or the amount of the money paid to the petitioner by the government of France, under the contract proved between the petitioner and said government for the voyage on which the Bourgogne was lost."
"(Indorsed.) -- Final decree. -- This decree substantially follows the practice of both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York as regards the question of an interlocutory judgment, and is in other respects deemed correct. -- E.B.T., U.S.J."
of the decree as granted the limitation of liability, and as determined the quantum of pending freight to be surrendered. The S. S. White Dental Company and various death claimants appealed from the disallowance of their claims. The petitioner also appealed from so much of the decree as held La Bourgogne at fault and allowed recovery in favor of the various claimants.
These two classes of appeals were heard separately in the circuit court of appeals. Those of the claimants were decided on June 23, 1905. Before passing on the merits, the court was required to consider a motion to dismiss, made by the petitioner on the ground that the claimants had not appealed within the statutory time. This was based on the contention that the final decree was not that entered by Judge Thomas in 1904, from which the appeals were taken, but the one entered by Judge Townsend in 1902. The court held that Judge Townsend's decree of 1902 was but interlocutory, and that of Judge Thomas was final.
freight and passage money collected for the sailing from Havre to New York, or of the subvention paid by the French government should be surrendered as freight pending, yet that error had been committed in deciding that the freight and passage money collected for the sailing from New York to Havre should not be paid over as a part of the pending freight. 139 F. 433.
On December 14, 1905, the appeal on behalf of the petitioner, insofar as not already passed upon, came on for hearing. The claimants objected to the hearing because the petitioner had not actually paid over to the trustee the sum of the freight and passage money for the last sailing from New York to Havre, which the court had held to be pending freight, to be surrendered under the law for limitation of liability. The court, without referring to the subject, passed upon the appeal. In disposing of the merits, while observing that, in view of the large amount of the death claims which the claimants were at liberty to establish as a result of the previous decision, the petitioner was really without any substantial interest to dispute the correctness of the awards in favor of the various claimants, nevertheless, in consequence of the possibility that its ruling on that subject might not be final, the court considered the various awards, and decided that no error had been committed in respect to any of them, Wallace, Circuit Judge, dissenting, however, as to the allowance made to the claimant Deslions. 144 F. 781.
As the case is before us not only because of the allowance of a writ of certiorari applied for by the claimants, but also on a cross-writ, asked on behalf of the petitioner, all the questions presented by the record are open, and, as far as they are essential, must be disposed of. Primarily, the question impliedly passed upon by the circuit court of appeals, concerning the timely taking of the appeals to that court, requires attention. To dispose of the subject we must decide whether the decree entered by Judge Townsend in 1902 or that entered by Judge Thomas in 1904 was the final decree.
concerning the sale of mortgaged property, but without a determination as to the amount due by the mortgage debtor, in which case, as pointed out in Keystone Manganese & Iron Co. v. Martin, supra, referring to the case of Ray v. Law, 3 Cranch 179, the decree of foreclosure would be but interlocutory, and not susceptible of being appealed from as a final decree. Besides, as pointed out in the McGourkey case, if the court below has treated a decree as interlocutory, and there is doubt on the subject, that doubt should be resolved in favor of the correctness of the conceptions of the lower court. It may not be doubted, on the very face of the decree of 1902, especially in view of the indorsement made upon the final decree by Judge Thomas, that it was considered both by Judge Townsend and Judge Thomas that the decree of 1902 was merely interlocutory. And such was, undoubtedly, the contemporaneous view taken by all the parties, since, except by an inadvertent notice of appeal given by the clerk of a proctor for several claimants, no appeal was taken from the decree of 1902, while all parties treated the decree of 1904 as the final decree, and appealed therefrom.
"A careful examination of all the testimony produced here has satisfied us that, although there may have been a reduction, she was certainly not going any slower, and probably was going faster, than ten knots. It is unnecessary to rehearse the evidence. The statement in the opinion below is sufficient indication of the grounds for this conclusion. The character and extent of the wound received by the Bourgogne are suggestive of a high speed on her part. Undoubtedly the fog was exceedingly dense; that fact is uncontradicted, and the steamer had not"
"reduced her speed to such a rate as would enable her to stop in time to avoid collision after an approaching vessel came in sight, provided such approaching vessel were herself going at the moderate speed required by law."
"The Chattahoochee, 173 U. S. 540. We are emphatically of the opinion that such a speed under the circumstances was excessive, and since it probably prevented an earlier foghorn blast being heard from the Cromartyshire, it cannot be held not to have been a proximate cause of the collision."
"It is not claimed by the petitioner that, upon the facts so found, this conclusion would be erroneous if this question between the claimants and the petitioner [steamship company] is properly to be determined by our rule and by the test which our courts apply as to what constitutes moderate speed in a fog."
From this premise it is argued first that, as La Bourgogne was a French ship, and as all the claims arose exclusively because of damage done to persons or property on board the steamship, the fault of that vessel should be tested by the theory which would be applied in the courts of France; and, second, that, accepting the conditions as to fog and the rate of speed found by the courts below, if the international rule, as enforced in the French courts, be applied, it would follow that the rate of speed was moderate, and therefore the steamship was not at fault.
different laws, since it would be unjust to apply the laws of either to the exclusion of the other, the law of the forum -- that is, the maritime law, as received and practiced therein -- would properly furnish the rule of decision. In all other cases. each nation will also administer justice according to its own laws. And it will do this without respect to persons -- to the stranger as well as to the citizen."
tested by the law as administered in the courts of the United States, and not otherwise.
As both courts held that there was no privity or knowledge, and as that question primarily is one of fact, the rule which we have hitherto applied as to the effect to be given to the concurrent findings of fact made by two courts might well be adequate to dispose of this subject. But it is elaborately insisted that the cause before us as to this particular subject does not come within the rule, because the courts below, while reaching a like conclusion, did so on different conceptions. As, in any event, the duty would devolve upon us of determining whether the findings of the courts below were clearly unsustained by the proof, and as we think, moreover, it is not clear that the courts below rested their conclusions solely upon common findings of fact, we propose, as briefly as may be, to consider the propositions relied upon to demonstrate that error was committed by both courts in deciding that there was an absence of privity or knowledge. Before doing so, however, we must dispose of a contention, greatly pressed in argument, that whether there was privity or knowledge is not to be tested solely by the proof, but is to be adjudged against the petitioner because of a legal presumption, asserted to arise from a suppression of evidence alleged to have been by it committed.
"I think he [the witness] ought to answer this question. . . . There is a direction for the production of books, and, in one way or another, the thing is postponed and postponed, and defeated and defeated, under one argument and another argument, so that no progress is made. . . . I cannot understand your proceeding here. While you are contumacious, it does not make much difference whether it is your captain or your company. If you are contumacious, I must dismiss the proceeding."
"That the petitioner produce, on or before the trial of this case all logs kept on board the steamship La Bourgogne during the period of two years previous to the collision in the petition mentioned, and also all logs kept on any other steamer of the petitioner running between Havre and New York for the same time, of which the same captain who was captain of the Bourgogne at the time of the collision was then master."
not be produced. Objections being made to this letter, the court remarked, concerning it: "That is not evidence. The logs may be lost, and then you have got to prove it. You have got to put somebody on the stand to prove it, to testify." Subsequently, during the examination of an official of the petitioner, a further effort to introduce the letter was made, but the court observed: "It is hearsay. It is simply a letter." In the course of the proceeding consequent upon the order that the further testimony be taken out of court, the letter was offered before the commissioner, and, subject to an objection, was marked as an exhibit. No further direct action of the court on the subject was thereafter invoked by the claimants, and neither the trial court nor the circuit court of appeals referred to the subject in their opinions. Under these circumstances, we think the contention here made, that it is our duty to decide the case, not according to the proof, but upon a presumption of wrongdoing and suppression of evidence, is without merit. We say this because we are of opinion that, if the claimants deemed that the letter explaining the reason for the nonproduction of the log books was not admissible, or that there had been contumacious suppression of evidence, it was clearly their duty, before or at the hearing, to have made an attempt to offer secondary evidence, or, in the event of the impossibility of so doing, to have asked at the hands of the court a dismissal of the proceedings, if such action was appropriate, or such other action for the alleged contumacy as the case required, and, if necessary, have saved an exception to an adverse ruling.
sections gives an absolute exemption to a shipowner for losses sustained by fire, unless the fire was caused by the design or neglect of such owner. The second section does not give an unlimited exemption, since the exemption which it accords does not embrace "the amount or value of the interest of such owner respectively in such vessel and her freight, then pending," and accords the limited exemption from liability upon the condition that the loss has occurred "without the privity or knowledge" of the owner or owners. The remaining sections we need not now consider, as they relate to the mode of apportionment of the loss where there are joint owners, or concern the administrative features of the law.
These sections are a substantial reenactment of the Act of March 3, 1851. 9 Stat. p. 635, c. 43. The purpose of the act of 1851, in according to shipowners the right to limit their liability in whole or in part, and the meaning of that act, as well as the purpose and meaning of the sections of the Revised Statutes embodying the provisions of the act of 1851, have been often before this Court, and have been conclusively adjudicated. Moore v. American Transp. Co., 24 How. 1; Norwich Co. v. Wright, 13 Wall. 104; The Benefactor, 103 U. S. 239; The Scotland, 105 U. S. 24; The North Star, 106 U. S. 17; Providence & N.Y. Steamship Co. v. Hill Mfg. Co., 109 U. S. 578; The City of Norwich, 118 U. S. 468; Butler v. Boston Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 527.
"The act was designed to promote the building of ships, and to encourage persons engaged in the business of navigation, and to place that of this country upon a footing with England and on the continent of Europe."
"In these provisions of the statute, we have sketched, in outline, a scheme of laws and regulations for the benefit of the shipping interest, the value and importance of which to our maritime commerce can hardly be estimated. Nevertheless, the practical value of the law will largely depend on the manner in which it is administered. If the courts having the execution of it administer it in a spirit of fairness, with the view of giving to shipowners the full benefit of the immunities intended to be secured by it, the encouragement it will afford to commercial operations (as before stated) will be of the last importance; but, if it is administered with a tight and grudging hand, construing every clause most unfavorably against the shipowner, and allowing as little as possible to operate in his favor, the law will hardly be worth the trouble of its enactment. Its value and efficiency will also be greatly diminished, if not entirely destroyed, by allowing its administration to be hampered and interfered with by various and conflicting jurisdictions."
its privity or knowledge, and therefore the case was not within the act of Congress limiting the liability of shipowners. Subsequently the steamship company set up the final decree of the district court in the limitation of liability proceedings, barring the claim in question. Thereafter a trial was had in the state court, and there was verdict and judgment against the steamship company, and the judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. This Court held that the proceedings for a limitation of liability excluded the jurisdiction of the state court. In determining the case, it became necessary to decide whether, if there was negligence of the owner of a vessel in case of fire, within the meaning of the first section of the act of 1851, such negligence was the necessary equivalent of privity and knowledge of the owner, as expressed in the third section of the act. It was held that the two provisions were not necessarily coterminous, that negligence under the first section of the act might exist so as to prevent the unqualified limitation given by that section, and yet the owner of the vessel be entitled to the more limited exemption given by the third section, which depended upon the absence of privity or knowledge. In other words, it was decided that, although a loss might have happened by the negligence of the owner of the vessel, such loss might yet not have been occasioned with the knowledge or privity of such owner.
what constituted pending freight within the meaning of the law for the limitation of liability. And this is also true of the English cases which were cited in the opinion in that case. It may be that there are general expressions found in some cases in the lower federal courts, decided both before and after the Hill case, which lend color to the assumption that privity and knowledge, as defined in the statute, is but the equivalent of mere negligence. Such of the cases relied upon, however, as were decided before the authoritative interpretation of the statute in the Hill case were necessarily overruled by that decision, and so far as those decided since may be inconsistent with the previous rulings of this Court, they are clearly not entitled to weight.
a. It is argued that there was a positive duty on the part of the petitioner to make regulations directing that its steamers be not run at an immoderate rate of speed in a fog, and as there was a failure to perform this duty, privity and knowledge was established. But both the courts below found the proposition of fact upon which this contention rests to be without foundation, and we think they were clearly right in so finding.
"Our board of directors, having seriously in mind the numerous collisions which daily occur at this season in the parts frequented by our steamers, we come to beg you to recall to all our captains, individually, the recommendations which we have always made to them to use the greatest prudence in their navigation, and to never hesitate in certain doubtful cases to adopt the most suitable measures to assure the safety of their steamers, even if a loss of time should result from so doing."
the most active watch be kept on board their vessels, and that all the prescriptions indicated in the rule as to collisions be strictly observed, as well by day as by night."
"Article 293. When the company's vessels are in localities frequented by vessels, especially in foggy weather and during the night, the engineer on watch and the necessary men for maneuvering must be within reach of the apparatus for changing the speed. The order is given by the officer of the watch to the engine room, and mention is made in the ship's log and in that of the engineer of the hour at which that order was given and received."
"Article 394. The company's vessels conform to the international rules for the purpose of preventing collisions. A printed copy of said rule is posted up in a conspicuous place in order that the officers may take notice of it."
"The prescriptions of said rule relative to phonic signals to be caused to be heard in foggy weather must be rigorously observed; besides, in said circumstances, a man must be placed aloft on lookout."
"Article 395. In conformity with the rules of international regulations having for object the prevention of collisions, all vessels under steam which approach each other so that there may be risk of collision must diminish their speed, or stop or go backwards, if necessary. All vessels under steam must, during foggy weather, preserve a moderate speed."
"The captain under these circumstances must diminish the speed of his engines and, in agreement with the agent of postes, the captain must make known by proces verbal the delays which such maneuver may have occasioned."
with the law is demonstrated by the issuance of the circular. The elaborate argument indulged in to establish that article 395, which in terms stated and commanded compliance with the international regulations, was a subterfuge, intended to enable the captains to violate those regulations, rests upon mere surmise, and, we think, finds no support in the record. The contention that the rules, as promulgated, were not sufficiently explicit is also without merit. The regulation in terms reiterated the international rule, and called for compliance with its provisions. It could not, in the nature of things, have been made more explicit. This was aptly pointed out by Townsend, District Judge. He said:"
"It is not clear that any further precautions than those established by the orders and regulations, quoted above, would have been practicable."
"The question of rate of speed in a fog is one which cannot be determined by set rules, but must be left largely to the discretion of the officers of the ship. They are entrusted with the responsibility of the carriage of mails, freight, and passengers at the greatest speed which is consistent with safety. Their own lives, as well as those of the passengers and crew, are at stake."
"The determination of the question, therefore, as to what is to be done in all the varying stages between a light haze and a dense fog rests upon a great variety of circumstances and conditions, all looking toward the question of what is a moderate rate of speed in existing conditions."
"Upon the proof as it stands we cannot find that the petitioner's officers knowingly tolerated or encouraged the running of its steamers at excessive speed in fogs, or were negligent in failing to enforce the rules; certainly they used due diligence in securing officers of experience and ability. We concur in the conclusion that the disaster was 'done, occasioned, or incurred without the privity or knowledge of the owners.'"
their requirements was indulged in, and was brought home to, or countenanced by, the petitioner, was cast upon the claimants, and that the court properly held that that burden was not sustained by the evidence.
And the considerations which we have stated also completely dispose of the contention not referred to in the opinion of either of the courts below, and apparently not brought to the notice of the trial court or assigned as error in the circuit court of appeals, viz., that privity and knowledge as to the fault which caused the collision was necessarily to be inferred from the terms of the contract for subsidy made by the petitioner with the French government. The contract in question was executed in virtue of a statute authorizing the same. The French government agreed to give to the petitioner a gross annual sum by way of subsidy for the operation of a weekly line "from Havre to New York; that is, fifty-two voyages, going and returning, a year." Among other things, in consideration of the payment of the subsidy, the petitioner engaged "to transport gratuitously all the mails upon the line from Havre to New York," and, "furthermore, to transport gratuitously all gold, silver, and copper coins for the use of the state, and to undertake take the carrying of postal packages" upon conditions fixed by law.
"The payment of the subsidy shall be ordered at the end of the term by the Departement des Postes et des Telegraphes from month to month and by twelfths, subject to the deduction of the sums retained, which may have been pronounced in the cases provided in these specifications."
"The payments shall take place at Paris or at Havre at the option of the contractor."
contractor shall be subject to a retention calculated at the rate of 8 francs a ton, gross gauge, and by the tenth of a knot under the required rate."
"At the end of each annual period, including an aggregate of fifty voyages, going and returning, there shall be prepared a report of the result of each crossing. The total of these partial results shall establish the figure of the mean speed and consequently of the premium which shall be accorded for employing it to the contractor, or of the retention which ought to be imposed upon him, save an account being kept in this last case of circumstances of vis major, duly authenticated."
"In no case shall the amount of the premium for the year exceed twelve hundred thousand francs (1,200,000 fr.). Art. 6 of the law of June 24th, 1883."
"When one of the steamers employed in the service shall not attain the mean speed of fifteen knots for ten consecutive voyages, going and returning, it shall be rejected as unfit. It may be presented for new trial after modifications, or it shall be replaced by a new boat within a maximum delay of thirty months."
of a half dozen or more valuable steamships, must, as a matter of legal presumption, be treated as having been a sufficient motive to induce the petitioner to sanction conduct by its captains, which not only was in direct violation of law, but recklessly endangered the lives and property of those on board, as well as hazarded the loss of the great sums invested in the steamships. And these considerations also dispose of the argument based upon the fact that a small part of the premium, if earned, was allowed by the company to the captains of its steamers.
"Every steamer navigating the ocean . . . shall be provided with such numbers of lifeboats, floats, rafts, life preservers, and drags as will best secure the safety of all persons on board such vessel in case of disaster, and . . . shall have the lifeboats required by law provided with suitable boat-disengaging apparatus, so arranged as to allow such boats to be safely launched while such vessels are under speed or otherwise, and so as to allow such disengaging apparatus to be operated by one person, disengaging both ends of the boat simultaneously from the tackles by which it may be lowered to the water."
"the Board of Supervising Inspectors shall fix and determine, by their rules and regulations, the kind of lifeboats, floats, rafts, and life preservers, and drags that shall be used on such vessels,"
"The owner of any such steamer who neglects or refuses to provide such lifeboats, floats, rafts, life preservers, drags, pumps, or appliances as are, under the provisions of the preceding section, required by the Board of Supervising Inspectors and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury shall be fined one thousand dollars."
"establish all necessary regulations required to carry out in the most effective manner the provisions of this title, and such regulations, when approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have the force of law."
Exercising the authority thus conferred upon them, the Board fixed the total capacity of lifeboats and life rafts on steamers navigating the ocean of the tonnage of La Bourgogne at 5,670 cubic feet. It is not questioned that La Bourgogne was equipped with lifeboats and life rafts to the capacity of 6,600 cubic feet, nearly a thousand feet more than the regulations having the force and effect of law required. Nor is it disputed that the vessel was duly inspected under the law, and received the certificate of complete equipment required by the statute, and was certified to be entitled to carry 1,019 passengers -- many more than were on the steamer at the time she was lost. And, indeed, the supervising inspector and assistant testified that La Bourgogne had complied with all the requirements imposed.
the assumption that the Act of August 7, 1882, which subjected certain foreign steam vessels to the requirements as to equipment and to the inspection laws of the United States and brought them under the authority of the Board of Supervising Inspectors, did not cause the rules of the board to be law as to such foreign vessels, although it made them law as to every other vessel subject to the statute.
". . . And all foreign private steam vessels carrying passengers from any port of the United States to any other place or country shall be subject to the provisions of"
rendering its requirements entirely nugatory. Aside, however, from this impossible conclusion, the contention is wholly devoid of merit, because both §§ 4488 and 4489 were among the sections especially enumerated in the amendatory act of 1882. The effect of this was to make beyond all peradventure those sections applicable to foreign steam vessels, and therefore to subject the owners of such vessels to the duty of complying with the rules and regulations made by the Board of Supervising Inspectors as to lifeboats and other equipment, under the pain of incurring the penalty provided by the statute. And the reasons just given dispose of the contention concerning the boat-disengaging apparatus. There is no question, as found by both courts, that the apparatus in use on La Bourgogne was that required by the board, and the officers of the board testified that the apparatus in use was adopted in compliance with their requirements, and was the best and only apparatus suitable for the purpose. Again, the contention that the regulations of the board are inconsistent with the statute, we think, when the statute is considered as a whole, is without merit. Even, however, if it were otherwise, as compliance on the part of the petitioner with the regulations adopted by the board was compelled by law, it cannot be that, upon it was cast the duty of disobeying the regulation at its peril, thus, on the one hand, subjecting it in case of noncompliance to the infliction of penalties and, on the other hand, if it fully complied with the regulations, imposing a liability upon the assumed theory that there had been a violation of law.
"The phrase is added 'on the same voyage' to confine the participation in the apportionment to the freighters of a single voyage, and not to permit the shipowner to bring into the compensation losses sustained on prior or other voyages."
who may have suffered loss from a previous voyage or trip, it follows that, as applied to the case before us, the then pending freight for the same voyage embraced only the distinct sailing between the definite termini, New York and Havre, and therefore did not include freight earned on the previous sailing from Havre to New York. This leads to the conclusion that both courts were right in not requiring the surrender of the freight earned in the sailing from Havre to New York, and requires us only to consider whether the circuit court of appeals was right in reversing the ruling of the trial court, to the effect that there was no obligation to surrender the sums which had been prepaid for freight and passage on the sailing from New York to Havre, upon which the vessel was lost. As pointed out in Norwich Co. v. Wright, supra, where a vessel is lost on a voyage, and thereby contracts of transportation are unperformed, it may be that there will be no freight earned and none to be surrendered. But in the case before us, it is unquestioned that the freight and passage money which was received by the petitioner for the voyage was paid to it under absolute agreement that the sums so paid were, in any event, to belong to the petitioner, which were tantamount to stipulations that, although such freight and passage moneys might be only partially earned, the right to the whole amount was contractually complete. Under these circumstances, in view of the decision in The Main, 152 U. S. 122, holding that the duty to surrender pending freight to entitle to a limitation of liability must be liberally construed against the shipowner, we are of opinion that the circuit court of appeals was right in holding that the petitioner was under the obligation to surrender the sums in question. See O'Brien v. Miller, 168 U. S. 287, 168 U. S. 303; Pacific Coast Co. v. Reynolds, 114 F. 877.
since, if one fifty-second part under the contract embraced the round trip from Havre to New York and back, only one-half of that sum, at the best, would be applicable on account of the voyage or trip from New York to Havre. But both the courts below were right, we think, in deciding that, in view of the nature and character of the contract of subsidy and the state of the proof, no part of the gross sum paid as subsidy for the year could be properly treated as freight earned and then pending for the voyage in which the vessel was lost. We say "in view of the nature and character of the contract" because, when all the obligations imposed by that instrument are considered, and the power with which it endowed the French government as to deductions for fines and penalties is borne in mind, we think it cannot rightfully be said that a particular portion of the annual subsidy was so dedicated to a particular trip as to cause any portion of the subsidy to become freight earned for that trip, and pending within the meaning of the statute. The provision as to the fifty-two voyages was, in a measure, distributive of the total annual payment. But, when the whole contract is taken into view, we think the annual subsidy was substantially indivisible, and the solidarity begotten by the terms of Article 45 of the contract between all the voyages, and the gross amount of the subsidy, excludes the conception that the result of one trip may be isolated and treated as pending freight for that voyage. We have said also, in view of the nature of the proof, because the evidence was merely that a certain sum was paid for the year, which was less than the maximum amount of the annual subsidy fixed by the contract, and no means is afforded for determining whether any deduction was made on account of the failure of La Bourgogne to complete the last voyage, or whether such proportionate amount was earned by the substitution of another vessel.
the trial court disallowed, and which the circuit court of appeals held were entitled to be proved against the fund.
It was settled in The Harrisburg, 119 U. S. 199, that no damages can be recovered in admiralty for the death of a human being on the high seas, or on the waters navigable from the seas caused by negligence in the absence of an act of Congress or a statute of a state, giving the right of action therefor. As said in Butler v. Boston Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 555, the maritime law of this country, at least, gives no such right. But in The Hamilton, 207 U. S. 398, ante, it was also settled that, where the law of a state to which a vessel belonged -- in other words, the law of the domicil of flag -- gives a right of action for wrongful death if such death occurred on the high seas on board of the vessel, the right of action given by the law of the domicil or flag will be enforced in an admiralty court of the United States as a claim against the fund arising in a proceeding to limit liability. As La Bourgogne was a French vessel, the question is therefore did the law of France give a right of action for wrongful death caused by the collision in question?
"The action brought to repair the damage caused by an accident, especially by an accident which has been followed by death, may be brought, not only by the heir of the victim, but also by anyone, whether heir or not, who has been directly injured by the consequences of the accident."
See decisions collected under No. 688, and the immediately following paragraphs in the Annotated Code, just previously cited. Indeed, in controversies in the French courts concerning injuries asserted to have been suffered by loss of life caused by the sinking of La Bourgogne, the right to recover for loss by death was impliedly conceded to exist, although relief was denied in the particular cases, on the ground that the steamer was not, under the proof at fault for the collision.
declining to draw their own inferences from the proof as to negligence, and, to the contrary, make such inferences as they assume would be drawn by a French court if the proof was before such court. The duty to enforce the cause of action given by the French law does not carry with it the obligation to disregard the proof by declining to give it that effect to which it is entitled under the law as administered in the courts of the United States. Moreover, as we have said previously, as the petitioner is here an actor, seeking to avail of the benefits of a statute of the United States, it becomes the duty of the courts of the United States to determine the question of fault by the international rule as they interpret it. And, in the nature of things, it cannot be that the vessel which seeks the benefit of the law of the United States can be held to be in fault and not in fault concerning the same act or acts.
which that court made held there was no pending freight, and therefore nothing to be surrendered. While the circuit court of appeals differed with the trial court as to one item -- the freight from New York to Havre -- we do not think that court was required, as a condition for affirming the grant of limitation of liability, to exact the payment of the disputed money into court, or the giving of bond therefor, until the possibility of the review of its action was at an end. Of course, where, in proceedings for limitation of liability, the petitioner contumaciously refuses to put the court in actual or constructive possession of the fund to be distributed, relief might properly be withheld and the petition for limitation of liability be dismissed. But where, as here, a bona fide controversy existed as to whether particular moneys were or were not pending freight, and there also existed no question as to the solvency of the petitioner, the court did not err in declining to impose conditions upon the granting of relief tantamount to an assumption that the claim of the petitioner was untenable, in advance of a final determination of the disputed issue. We have confined the foregoing opinion to those general propositions which we deem essential to dispose of the case. We have hence refrained from expressly noticing many minor points pressed in the voluminous argument submitted at bar. Because we have so done, we have not overlooked, but have considered, them all -- indeed, have disposed of them all, as the reasons we have given, when ultimately considered, conclude every contention made. As neither party has prevailed in this Court, each must pay his own costs in this Court.
"Proof of claims presented to the commissioner shall be made by or before the return day of the monition by affidavit specifying the nature, grounds, and amount thereof, the particular dates on which the same accrued, and what, if any, credits were given thereon, and what payments, if any, have been made on account, with a bill of particulars giving the respective dates and amounts, if the same consists of several different items. Such proof shall be deemed sufficient unless, within five days after the return day of the monition, or after interlocutory decree in case of issue joined by answer to the petition, or within such further time as may be granted by the court, the allowance of the claim shall be objected to by the petitioner or by some other creditor filing a claim, who shall give notice in writing of such objection to the commissioner and to the proctors of the claim objected to, if any. Any claim so objected to must be established by further legal prima facie proof on notice to the objecting party, as in ordinary cases; but any creditor desiring to contest the same upon any specific defense must, with this notice of objection, or subsequently, if allowed by the commissioner or the court, state such defense, or be precluded from giving evidence thereof, and the unsuccessful party to such contest may be charged with the costs thereof. The commissioner shall, on the return day of the monition, file in open court a list of all claims presented to him."
To Pauline Henuy, as administratrix of Juliette Cicot, deceased, $2,802, for loss of money and personal effects.
To William C. Perry, as administrator of Kate M. Perry, deceased, $5,277.50, for loss of money and personal effects.
To William C. Perry, as administrator of Florence Perry, deceased, $1,050, for loss of money and personal effects.
To William C. Perry, as administrator of Sadie Perry, deceased, $1,050, for loss of money and personal effects.
To George Deslions, $25,000 for loss of property as baggage.

References: § 4405
 § 4281
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 Art. 6
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