Pierce v. Winsor
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts
The defendants [Nathaniel Winsor and others] chartered of the libellant [Henry A. Pierce] the ship Golden City for a voyage to San Francisco, and then put her up as a general ship. A quantity of mastic was shipped on freight by the United States government from their works at New York to the fort at Fort Point, San Francisco. The mastic was in cakes, and was stowed in bulk in the run.
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The defendants [Nathaniel Winsor and others] chartered of the libellant [Henry A. Pierce] the ship Golden City for a voyage to San Francisco, and then put her up as a general ship. A quantity of mastic was shipped on freight by the United States government from their works at New York to the fort at Fort Point, San Francisco. The mastic was in cakes, and was stowed in bulk in the run. Upon the arrival of the ship out, it was found that the mastic had run together and among the cargo, and had then hardened in one solid mass, adhering to the sides of the ship and to the cargo next to it. The…
1Opinion of the Court
.SPRAGUE, District Judge.
In Brass v. Maitland, 6 El. & Bl. 470, the chief justice evidently took the view that the shipper of goods in a general ship impliedly contracts that the goods shipped shall not be injurious to other goods shipped in the usual course of lading a ship, and that this rule is not affected by the fact that the skipper had innocently shipped dangerous goods without knowledge of their true character. This principle is a sound one. It throws the loss upon the party who generally has the best means of informing himself as to the character of the article shipped. A different…
2Cited by3 opinions
- Barney v. BurstenbinderNew York Supreme Court · 1872
- Barney v. BurnstenbinderNew York Supreme Court · 1872
- Hanna v. Pitt & Scott (Ltd.)Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1907