Nickerson v. Tyson
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This action was assumpsit, to recover a sum of money as contribution, in the nature of general average, upon a loss which happened to the schooner Polly, of which the plaintiffs were owners, on a voyage from Baltimore to Lisbon, the defendant being a freighter on said vessel. The action was tried upon the .issue of non assumpsit, before Parker, J., at the last November term in this county.
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This action was assumpsit, to recover a sum of money as contribution, in the nature of general average, upon a loss which happened to the schooner Polly, of which the plaintiffs were owners, on a voyage from Baltimore to Lisbon, the defendant being a freighter on said vessel. The action was tried upon the .issue of non assumpsit, before Parker, J., at the last November term in this county. By the evidence at the trial, it appeared that during said voyage, on the 30th of August, 1809, there was a violent gale of wind, which occasioned the carrying away by the board the bowsprit, masts, and…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
The -plaintiffs are not entitled to contribution upon the facts reported. Here was no deliberate act done for the preservation of the whole, except the separating the masts and rigging from the hull, after they were carried overboard by the violence of the weather. At the utmost, all that the plaintiffs could claim would be a contribution proportioned to their value, when thus hanging by the side of the vessel. But in fact the cargo has been held already to pay a salvage to another vessel, which was the means of finally saving it to its owners.
Plaintiffs nonsuit.
2Cited by5 opinions
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- Emery v. HuntingtonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1872
- Crockett v. DodgeSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1835
- Lee v. GrinnellThe Superior Court of New York City · 1856
- The Adele ThackeraDistrict Court, S.D. New York · 1885