Court Opinion

ID: 9639600
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:41:29.19388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:20.354728
License: Public Domain

MORTON, District Judge
(dissenting).
On the question of pleading I concur in the result.
The case really turns on whether the accident was caused by carelessness in tying up the steamer, or by a defective condition of the wharf, or by both. These points are not discussed either in the opinion of the District Judge or in that of this court. The Surico, in breaking away, pulled bodily off the top of the wharf the stone to which the mooring bit was attached and two- other stones in front of it, the three having a combined weight of about fifteen tons; a,stone under these, the weight of which is not given, was moved out about a foot. All these stresses, it will be noticed, were outward, i. e., towards the river. But heavy stresses in the opposite direction were also involved. The cap log of the wharf, which was twelve inches square, was backed by heavy planking laid endwise to it. After the accident it was found that the cap log had been pushed up about ten inches, and the ends of the planks behind it had been “crushed” back and splintered upwards. As the wind blew from the wharf toward the vessel it does not account for pressure against the wharf. The highest estimate of its velocity was from forty to forty-eight miles per hour; there is no claim that it was of unprecedented, or even of extraordinary, severity. I find great difficulty in believing that it was capable of exerting sufficient force to drag off the wharf these heavy stones which had held many larger vessels. Moreover, such an explanation of the accident in no wise accounts for the “crushing” of the cap log and the adjoining planks; that damage was evidently done by a force acting-inward against the wharf and the wind.
*65The correct explanation of an accident, as well as of a crime, must necessarily be consistent with all established facts. The libelant’s interpretation of what occurred, viz., that the steamer broke adrift from the mere pressure of the wind, which was accepted in the District Court and is approved without discussion in the majority opinion, ignores entirely the crushing of the wharf, and is inconsistent with that fact. The suggestion offered by the street railway company is that the steamer was tied up too short on a rising tide; that her lifting with the tide and with the removal of cargo shortened the lines and brought her solidly against the wharf; that as she continued to lift the stresses involved became extreme and were finally resolved by the “crushing” of the wharf, the forcing up of the cap log, and the pulling out of the stones to which the bow line was fastened. This explanation of the accident harmonizes all the established facte and is supported by many things in the testimony. „ The lines were last tended at 8:30. After that the tide rose more than two hours before the accident; and it rose a foot and one-half higher than was normally expected. The unloading of cargo which was going on also lifted the vessel. She broke away just at the top of the tide. There was no noticeable increase in the wind to account for the accident just at that time.
The mooring may have pulled loose, either because the wharf was unsuitable, or because the vessel was improperly tied to it in such a manner as to produce extraordinary strain on her lines. But for tbe contrary view of my associates, I should think it too clear for argument that under these circumstances the principle of res ipsa loquitur on which the District Judge relied had no application, and that the happening of the accident afforded no inference that the wharf was unsafe or improper. On this point the case is curiously similar to Girard Point Storage Co. v. Roy, 93 F. 574 (C. C. A. 3d), where the failure of a mooring post was held not evidence of negligence. The weight of the District Judge’s finding is greatly diminished by the fact that it was based on the view that the failure of - the mooring to hold was itself evidence of negligence on the part of the wharf owner. We should examine the testimony and arrive at our own conclusions. It seems to me clear that something more than the force of the wind entered into the accident, i. e., that the vessel was negligent as to her mooring lines. I incline to think that she was solely at fault; but as my brethren do not think that she was at fault at all, it is unnecessary for me to express a definite opinion on that point.