State Road Department of Florida v. Gulf States Marine & Mining Co.

CARSWELL, Chief Judge.

This cause is submitted to the Court without jury on depositions and stipulations. The action arises out of collision of defendant’s tug with the Hathaway Bridge, owned by plaintiff, at Panama City, Florida, shortly after noon April 4, 1952. The evidence discloses that the tug was pulling with a “Y” yoke three empty steel barges in close line. The steel barges were each approximately 185 feet long and 85 feet wide. The tug’s operator had clear vision of the bridge when he was approximately three-quarters of a mile south of it as the tug advanced northward. The Hathaway…