The M. L. C. No. 10

(after stating the facts as above). The petitions by which the shipowners were impleaded are something of a curiosity, and should, as matter of pleading, have been met by a peremptory exception.

After setting out that the lighters libeled had either taken export cargo to an outgoing steamer or received imported goods from an incoming vessel, each petition avers that “there was and still is a general custom and usage in the shipping and lighterage business to the effect that * * * general cargoes delivered to [or from] other steamships under the same or similar circumstances [i. e., as in the…