Reed v. Dick
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the common pleas of Crawford county. The plaintiffs below declared against the defendant, who was sued as a common carrier, with another not taken, for damage to their goods aboard the schooner Farmer, from Buffalo in New York, to Erie in Pennsylvania; and laid their damages at 5000 dollars. The Farmer sailed with other vessels in the beginning of October 1833, the most tempestuous season of lake navigation, and was driven back by stress of weather.
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ERROR to the common pleas of Crawford county. The plaintiffs below declared against the defendant, who was sued as a common carrier, with another not taken, for damage to their goods aboard the schooner Farmer, from Buffalo in New York, to Erie in Pennsylvania; and laid their damages at 5000 dollars. The Farmer sailed with other vessels in the beginning of October 1833, the most tempestuous season of lake navigation, and was driven back by stress of weather. The gale having moderated, she sailed again, but was compelled to go into Dunkirk for a harbour, where she lay at single anchor till the…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
Whether we look to the carrier’s common law responsibility or to the limit assigned to it by the exception in the bill of lading, we must hold him bound, at the peril of consequences-actually produced by any defect in that particular, to provide a vessel sufficiently furnished with tackle and apparel to encounter the ordinary dangers of the voyage; not its extraordinary and unforeseen dangers against which it behooves the merchant to secure himself by a policy of insurance. It might be supposed, therefore, that seaworthiness could not…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Hart v. Allen & GrantSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1833
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