Court Opinion

ID: 9443745
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:29:26.658368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:35.389719
License: Public Domain

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The primary problem here is whether the missing scrap was delivered by the carrier to the consignee. The question of negligence in the delivery or thereafter is never reached. From the clear facts what the carrier insisted upon and attempted was actual delivery, retaining possession meanwhile. It did so deliver part of the shipment. The balance, assuming that the scrap had been entirely unloaded, was never delivered to libellant.
Appellant admits its obligation to deliver. Throughout its briefs it contended that to *388accomplish this it had merely to comply with the provision of the bill of lading that the goods be at the risk of their consignee “ * * * as soon as deliveréd from the [ship’s] tackle.” At oral argument this defense was completely abandoned. The necessity of notice to the consignee and a reasonable time allowance for the latter to remove the scrap was admitted.8 The appellant insisted it had complied with those elements and therefore had constructively delivered the shipment to North American.
What appellant did in fact was to retain possession of all of the scrap until Friday, April 2, 1948. At that time through its checker it, according to him, “turned over” part of the shipment to appellee’s truckers. The following Monday it “turned over” the balance of the shipment then on the pier in the same fashion. The truckers on both the 2nd and 5th signed an itemized receipt acknowledging that all of the specified merchandise less the noted missing items was “Received in good order” from appellant’s agent and “Delivered to” the individual truckman on each load who signed for same. This was no matter of mere orderly bookkeeping procedure. It was the written evidence of appellee’s acknowledgment that the ship had performed its carriage contract with the exception of the shortage set out in full on the face of the doctiment. Until the driver signed “the delivery record”, as it was called by Harry J. Crane, the clerk in charge of the particular shipment for respondent’s agent, he could not leave the pier with this load. That was the procedure every time the drivers came in. Even after April 5th, the date on which it was discovered that some of the scrap was missing, Crane made up a complete list of the scrap and on the list showed that the only groups of items “Delivered April 2, 1948” were those signed for that day in the delivery receipt. The list showed what remained on the pier at 5 :00 P.M., April 2nd, what was on the pier 8:00 A.M. April 5th, and what was missing at that time.
In the face of the above evidence, not only uncontroverted but from the appellant’s own witnesses and exhibits, Finding of Fact 20 by the district judge cannot be properly set aside. That finding reads:
“20. That portion of the said total shipment described in Finding 14 above has never been delivered to libellant by the respondent at the Port of Philadelphia or elsewhere.”
At the very least, the district judge was not clearly wrong in making that finding. The non-delivery is the gravamen of the libel. Since the scrap in controversy, though apparently on the pier, was still in the possession of the carrier when it disappeared, the responsibility for it as between the carrier and the consignee is that of the former. Quite aside from what follows, this situation requires affirmance of the district court judgment as a matter of law.
Appellant’s theory of constructive delivery presents nothing calling for a reversal of the judgment.
The ship docked at Philadelphia March 27, 1948, but it was not until March 29, the day it started unloading, that a notice of arrival was mailed libellant. It does not appear in the record when the notice was received. On Friday, April 2nd, libellant started trucking away its scrap. The job was not finished by 5:00 o’clock that evening, quitting time, and therefore went over to Monday, the 5th, the next working day. The majority seems to think that the consignee should have paid premium time to complete the removal on Friday. This would hardly seem part of consignee’s obligation in this ordinary shipping transaction. No reason for it, contract or custom, is in the record.9 But what does appear is the testimony of respondent’s witness, Edward Crane, who checked the scrap for Sobelman Company, respondent’s agent. Speaking of this particular shipment he said, “ * * * the steamship gives consignee five days to take it off the pier.” *389And the testimony of the general manager of Philadelphia Piers, Incorporated, the owner of the particular pier where the ship docked, was specifically that the pier operation in effect in 1948 was that import cargo, which the scrap was, discharged by a vessel “ * * * remains on the pier in the possession of the vessel or its agent until such time as an order is issued to Philadelphia Piers, Incorporated. * * * On truck freight the cargo never comes into the possession of Philadelphia Piers, Incorporated. It is extracted from the vessel and delivered to the truck by the steamship company, remaining solely and always in the possession of the steamship line.” The witness went on to say that the pier allowed five days free time (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays) for delivery of import cargo after discharge by the vessel.
There is no issue as to that free time, confused or otherwise, in this record. Whatever may be the quarrel, if any, between the ship and the pier, it is no part of this case.10 Respondent’s objection to the above testimony concerning the custom prevailing at the pier was based solely on the bill of lading provision regarding delivery. Appellant as already stated, now concedes the non-applicability of that provision.
So what we have on appellant’s current defense of constructive delivery is that under the prevailing custom in 1948, which has continued to the present, delivery of cargo such as the scrap in controversy is not made until it is delivered to the consignee’s truck by the steamship company and up to that time remains solely in the possession of the ship. From the facts there was no constructive delivery to the libellant. The uncontradicted testimony is that when the scrap disappeared it was still in the possession of the ship with the latter responsible for it. On this claim of constructive delivery the District Judge was clearly right in finding no delivery. He should be affirmed.

. See The Eddy, 5 Wall. 481, 72 U.S. 481, 18 L.Ed. 486.

. The need for such extraordinary measures is belied by respondent’s argument and the holding of the majority that the pier in question was well-protected.

. Homo Insurance Oo. v. Philadelphia Piers, Inc., D.C.E.D.Pa.l95i, 100 F.Supp. 348, obviously is not pertinent here. That was a suit between different parties with different issues involved. Good reputation of the pier, etc., in evidence there is not present in this record.