Halsey v. Brown
Supreme Court of Connecticut
MOTION for a new trial. This was an action of assumfisit, brought against the defendants as owners of the brig ‘Eliza, for 65 pennyweight of Portuguese and Spanish gold, and 100 Spanish milled dollars, shipped by the, plaintiff at JVevis, on board said brig, to be transported, and delivered to a mercantile house in Arew-London, for which the master gave the plaintiff a bill of lading in the usual form. The defendants pleaded the general issue.
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MOTION for a new trial. This was an action of assumfisit, brought against the defendants as owners of the brig ‘Eliza, for 65 pennyweight of Portuguese and Spanish gold, and 100 Spanish milled dollars, shipped by the, plaintiff at JVevis, on board said brig, to be transported, and delivered to a mercantile house in Arew-London, for which the master gave the plaintiff a bill of lading in the usual form. The defendants pleaded the general issue. On the trial, the defendants offered to prove, that there was a usage or custom of merchants existing in the state of Connecticut, and at JVew- York,…
1Opinion of the Court
tif the Court.
The question in this ease is, whether evidence of a particular custom or usage can he given in evidence to control a general law.
The general law applicable to the commercial world, ‘ that owners of vessels are answerable for the contracts and conduct of their masters, when acting whir,., -he Scope of their authority, must be admitted. I But as it is a principie, that the general common law may be, and in many instances is, controlled by special custom; so the general commercial law may, by the same reason, be controlled by a special local usas» . so far as that usage extends;…
2Cited by13 opinions
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- Renner v. Bank of ColumbiaSupreme Court of the United States · 1824
- Barlow v. LambertSupreme Court of Alabama · 1856
- Barber v. BraceSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1819
- Renner v. President of the Bank of ColumbiaSupreme Court of the United States · 1824
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