Alliance Tobacco Co. v. United States

L. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The respondent appeals from an interlocutory decree in a suit brought under the Suits in Admiralty Act (section 742, title 46, U.S.Code, 46 U.S.C.A. § 742), to recover for damages to a parcel of tobacco carried from Antwerp to New York. in January, 1928, in a vessel owned by the United States, but chartered to a private company. Upon examination by cargo surveyors at the outturn on February 4th, the tobacco was found to be wet and mouldy, and this was the loss sued for. The judge concluded that the damage could not have been due to sweat, as the ship asserted, but that…