Bean v. Grace Brown
District Court, E.D. Virginia
[In admiralty. Libel by Bean and others against the ship Grace Brown, for salvage. The libellants are pilots, from Baltimore, duly authorized to act as such, and claim salvage, for themselves and their respective crews. They propound that while cruising off the capes of Virginia, on the lookout for vessels requiring their services, Captain Bean, on the 8th January, 1841, spied a ship on shore on Smith’s Island flats, which proved to be the Grace Brown, of Baltimore.
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[In admiralty. Libel by Bean and others against the ship Grace Brown, for salvage. The libellants are pilots, from Baltimore, duly authorized to act as such, and claim salvage, for themselves and their respective crews. They propound that while cruising off the capes of Virginia, on the lookout for vessels requiring their services, Captain Bean, on the 8th January, 1841, spied a ship on shore on Smith’s Island flats, which proved to be the Grace Brown, of Baltimore. That finding himself unable to relieve her, he procured the assistance of the other libel-lants, and again boarded the ship at 1…
1Opinion of the Court
MASON, District Judge.2
The material facts in dispute between the parties are: 1. Whether the ship was abandoned by the officers and crew, and was in a state of derelict, when she was taken possession of by the libellants, or not? 2. Whether the situation of the ship and cargo was imminently perilous, at the time of the salvage, and in what degree?
The depositions of some of the libellants are taken and read as evidence in the cause. This is legal evidence; it forms an exception, from the necessity of the case, to the general rule, that a person interested in the re-*1137suit of a cause is…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Lovelace v. TaylorSupreme Court of Louisiana · 1843
3Cited by1 opinion
- Duff v. MerrittCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1898