3 Wend. 283 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1829
By the Court,
The policy in this case being on time, is subject to the rules of construction in other cases, except as to the commencement and termination of the voyage. The risk is made to commence on the loading
Did the policy attach to the plata pina, or was the voyage ended ? Where the adventure was to run six months, with the privilege to the insured to extend it two months longer, a trading voyage was evidently contemplated by both parties ; and it cannot be fairly construed to be at an end at the first port which the vessel makes, but is to continue in the same manner as if a trading voyage had been expressed, with liberty to touch and trade at such ports and places on the globe as the insured shall choose, subject to the accustomed and usual mode of transacting business at the several places visited by such vessel; and however often the goods may be changed, the policy attaches. Any other construction would suppose extreme folly and weakness in the insured. The idea that a person engaged in shipping goods intends to sail upon the ocean for six or eight months with the goods, and return them in specie to the port of departure, or any other port without the liberty of disposing of them, is too preposterous to be for a moment admitted.
In Grant v. Paxton, (1 Taunton, 474.) Mansfield, chief justice, speaking of the case of Grant v. Decarvin, where the policy was in terms similar to what I contend was the meaning of'the parties in this case, says, “ It was on goods laden in London, and to continue on the same goods, which, literally taken, would be absurd, because goods are taken out for the purpose of trading and barter, not to be brought home again in specieand that consequently the captain (the
It is objected, however, that the substituted goods were not on board of the vessel, but were lost in their passage from the shore to the vessel in the plaintiff’s own lighter. Could we reasonably entertain the opinion that these were the first goods of the plaintiff on board the vessel, or attempted to be put on board subject to the policy, then undoubtedly the policy would never have attached. By the terms of the policy, the adventure commenced from the hading the goods on board on or after the 10th July; but as the plaintiff had previously goods on board, with the proceeds of which the plata pina was purchased, the supposition cannot be admitted. As the transaction in question cannot, therefore, be considered the beginning or the termination of the adventure, the cases referred to, shewing that where the insured has taken his goods into his own possession in his own lighters the risk ceases, can have no application to this case. Where the defendants insured the plaintiff’s goods upon a trading voyage, the insurance was intended to cover those goods, and any other goods, the property of the plaintiff, procured with their proceeds, until the expiration of the term insured for. As the goods were not on board the vessel when lost, the liability of the defendants must depend upon the known course of trade and established usage, with which insurers are supposed to be conversant. Upon this principle, the plaintiff recovered in Pelly v. The Royal Exchange Co. (1 Burr. 341,) for the sails,
The plaintiff is entitled to judgment.