Colby v. Todd Packing Co.

FOLTA, District Judge.

Libellants seek to recover salvage for rescuing five fish trap frames found adrift in the navigable channel of Peril Straits, Alaska, on March, 1948, under conditions constituting a marine peril. Respondent has excepted to the libel on the grounds that a fish trap is not a subject of salvage because it is neither vessel nor cargo within the doctrine of Cope v. Vallette Dry-Dock Company, 119 U.S. 625, 7 S.Ct. 336, 30 L.Ed. 501. Libellants reply to this contention is that the scope of that decision is limited to the facts of that case. They rely principally on Maltby v.…