Court Opinion

ID: 9653580
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:49:16.908059+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:00.100600
License: Public Domain

HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I disagree with the District Judge and I agree with the majority on the issues of conversion and unseaworthiness. I agree with the District Judge and disagree with the majority on the issue of negligent navigation. I therefore concur in reversing the decree for denying limitation and dissent from reversing it for its finding of negligent navigation. I have no quarrel with any of the general legal positions the majority opinion takes. I agree with them all. My difference arises entirely on the facts. The majority holds that the testimony is insufficient to establish negligence. The District Judge thought it sufficient. I think so. Indeed, I think that the record as a whole permits of only one reasonable conclusion. That conclusion is that when the barge left Angola she was dangerously down by the head and that in her condition, which was known to the tug captains, it was negligence to navigate her as she was afterwards navigated in beating up and across the river to find a landing. The' testimony of the witnesses for the Fluker Gravel Company furnishes abundant support for this conclusion. The only counter testimony is the aftetexplanation by supposition of those on the tug that the barge may have struck a submerged object. I believe the former credible, the latter incredible. It is true that the tug was not an insurer of the barge and owed it only the duty of ordinary care. It is true, too, that the burden of proving negligence was on the tow and that such proof wanting the tug could not be held liable. But, as I read the record, this is not a case of failure of proof. There is, I think, positive and abundant testimony of the unseaworthiness of the tow when she left Angola and that those in charge of the tug knew of that condition. I believe that testimony to be reasonable and true.
I think the explanation of the sinking those on the tug put forward is an afterthought devised to shield themselves from blame and their owners from responsibility for a piece of negligent navigation. The difference between me and my associates is not on matters of law but on the truth and effect of testimony. It will therefore serve no useful purpose for me to extend this dissent with excerpts from the record. It will suffice to say that I think that on the issue of negligent navigation not my associates but the District Judge and I have read the record aright.