Court Opinion

ID: 8635118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-24 19:43:56.681325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:55:54.162643
License: Public Domain

BENEDICT, District Judge.
It is manifest that this collision, happening as it did on a clear day, between two vessels which saw each other at abundant distance to avoid accident, was the result of carelessness, but where the negligence was is not clear. I notice this, however, that the man at the wheel of the bark, who from his position and duty would be best able to say whether the course of the bark was or was not changed, as charged by the claimant, is not called as a witness, nor is any attempt made to account for his absence, while the person in charge of the tug, and who was, as he said, responsible for the movements of the bark, is positive in the assertion that he saw the ferry boat all the time; that she was under full headway, and did not check her speed till within about ten feet of the bark’s side, when she first stopped her engine but did not reverse.
This statement, flatly contradicted by the men on the ferry boat, must be wholly incorrect. A ferry boat like the New York approaching the bark head on, and keeping full speed till within a few feet, would have produced results far different from the injuries caused here. This is a case not of miscalculation of distances or wrong estimate of time, but as it seems to me of gross exaggeration on the part of a most important and intelligent witness in charge of the injured vessel, and from whom the court was entitled to receive a frank and accurate account of what took place.
The exhibition of such a tendency to mis-describe the occurrence, makes me distrustful of the libellant’s case, and unwilling to render a decree upon such testimony.
I shall therefore dismiss the libel and leave the libellant to prove his case, if he can, before the appellate court, by calling his wheelsman and some of the many passengers who saw the accident, and who may be able to give reliable information as to what was the action of the two vessels on the occasion in question.