Court Opinion

ID: 9446728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:17:04.668106+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:45.532196
License: Public Domain

BYERS, District Judge
(dissenting).
I am constrained to dissent from so much of the court’s opinion as sustains the finding of the District Court, that any damage sustained by the libelant’s structure should be visited upon the “Lion.”
It is not disputed that there was a rubbing along the “icebreaker” by two scows at the tail end of the Cornell tow, on the port side. Thus the fact of contact or collision, if that term be preferred, is accepted as a datum.
The libelant rested under the necessity also of demonstrating that the damage of which it complains, was caused thereby. That proposition is self-evident, but authority to support it is not lacking: The S. & P. No. 15, D.C., 61 F.Supp. 846, and cases therein cited. Cf. The Java, 14 Wall. 189, 20 L.Ed. 834, 81 U.S. 189.
*540Because the record is thought not to demonstrate that this burden of proof has been sustained, this opinion is written.
For some undisclosed reason, the libel-ant undertook to show that the “Lion” and her tow effected passage through the abutments at about 1:15 A.M. on September 18, 1953 instead of 12:30 A.M. which was the approximate time shown by the “Lion.” As to this, the opinion of the District Court states:
“We resolve easily enough the conflict of time between 12:30 and 1:15 because we do not accept the tug Lion’s captain’s estimate of his speed over the ground at the time.”
Concerning this there was no opposing testimony which would constitute the foregoing a finding based upon conflicting evidence. Nor was any finding made as to what the speed was deemed to be, perhaps because of the obvious difficulty of stating a convincing computation.
The libelant’s exhibit 3-A is a portion of a daily log maintained by one of its deceased employees who was a watchman on patrol. It contains the following:
“1:30 A.M. Cornell tug Jumbo.”
The hour stated is written over an erasure which could have been originally 12:30. Moreover it is immediately over, not under, the 1:00 A.M. entry and is thus not in sequential order. The entry below the 1:00 A.M. is at 2:00 A.M.
The purported 1:30 entry as now presented is obviously synthetic. The reference to the tug Jumbo can be explained by its close resemblance in appearance to the “Lion” (as stated in the testimony), and in my view, what happened was that the “Lion” and tow passed the abutment without perceptible damage to the “icebreaker” at 12:30 A.M.
The 2:40 entry recites in part,
“Went on round and saw that the red light was out”
and the extensive nature of the damage was observed at 5:30 A.M.
The only irregular entry is the one purporting to be made at 1:30 A.M.
The times and distances and therefore-the speed over the ground of the “Lion” and its tow, are well attested by the testimony of Kennelly, the captain of the helper tug, and her log entries, and by the log entries of the “Lion” when off various places above and below the location of the abutments of the bridge then under construction.
Since no reason is apparent for brushing aside Barton’s testimony as to the speed of his tow, in my opinion it should have been accepted.
The nature and extent of the damage to the “icebreaker” is shown by the testimony of the surveyor Watkins. That was a sturdy structure, erected to-withstand the impact of heavy ice moving down the Hudson River under conditions which are well understood, and the physical characteristics of the structure are described in the prevailing opinion.
The District Court drew the “inference” that the extensive demolition was; caused by the sliding along of the scows, in the “Lion" tow. That inference is. not in accord with the testimony of Ken-nelly, who was an eye-witness of the occurrence, and is not supportable as I read the record. The wreckage was too comprehensive to have resulted from a mere rubbing or sliding along piling and sheathing.
Captain Barton emerges in a somewhat anomalous position as a witness. He was not believed as to the speed of his tow by the District Court, and that view is here sanctioned. However, this court is unanimous in finding his testimony to be credible concerning the distance at which the red light on the east abutment was visible. I go further and accept his statement as to the time his tow passed the abutment.
As to so much of the opinion of the court as discusses statutory fault on the part of libelant, and its failure to demonstrate that the fault could not have contributed to the contact, such as it was, between the tow and the “icebreaker,” I concur.
*541From so much of the opinion as awards half damages to the libelant, I dissent, and would dismiss the libel for failure on the libelant’s part to sustain its burden of proof, that the extensive damage to the “icebreaker” was caused by the “Lion” tow.