6 La. 579 | La. | 1834
delivered the opinion of the court.
In this case the plaintiff claims remuneration for loss and damage which it is alleged he had suffered by the negligence and misconduct of the defendants, his agents, in not insuring his interest in a certain steamboat called the Hercules, which was employed in towing vessels between New-Orleans and the Balize. He obtained judgment in the court below from which the defendants appealed.
The principal facts of the case are as follows. The boat in question was owned in unequal portions by the defendants, the plaintiff, and one Bakewell. The interest of the plain
The judgment of the District Court as based on these facts is assailed by the counsel tor the appellants on two grounds: I. That they were not the agents of the plaintiff’s at the time of the alleged negligence. 2. That if they may be considered as his agents they gave him notice of their having discontinued to insure his interest in the boat, and that he acquiesced in the latter course of conduct.
Neither of these propositions is supported by the evidence in the cause. They were his agents to effect insurance; and, indeed as related to the management of the boat during the time she was employed in towing voyages below New-Orleans and the mouth of the river from 1826, to the summer of 1827, when she was sent to Shippingport for repairs; and in that voyage they assumed the agency to insure the interest of the plaintiff. When did they cease to be his agent? According to our conclusions from the testimony, never until the boat was lost; at least so far as their agency related to effecting insurance. How did they give notice to the co-proprietor that they had ceased to protect his interest by insurances while they were so careful of their own? Not by letter, not by verbal message. But the counsel argues that he had at
■ We are unable to discover any thing in the prominent features of this case calculated to distinguish it from that of Ralston vs. Barclay et als 6 Martin 649.
It is, therefore, ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the District Court be affirmed with costs.