Onderdonk v. Smith

The libel in this case was filed to recover damages occasioned by the sinking of a boat called Box No. 8, loaded with coal, at pier 2, Elizabethport, New Jersey, on November 4, 1882. There can be no doubt that the immediate cause of the sinking of the boat was her settling down with the ebb-tide, as she lay along-side the pier, upon a hidden pile, which, as it was subsequently proved, projected about a foot above the bottom of the slip, and was a foot or two outside of the face of the pier. The evidence shows that when the boat was raised, the pile, being thrust through the bottom of the…