76 Ga. 532 | Ga. | 1886
The declaration in this case sets forth the plaintiffs’ claim for damages done to a package of goods shipped from Baltimore to Savannah on the steamer John Hopkins, and which was to be forwarded by rail from the latter port to Brunswick. The box containing the goods, it was alleged, had been opened, and sixty-nine dollars and fifty cents worth of the same had been abstracted therefrom, and were never delivered to the plaintiffs, who were the consignees at Brunswick. The other damage claimed amounted to $158.50, which was caused by wetting the goods with sea-water; there was a further claim for attorney’s fees, which, however, was withdrawn and abandoned on the hearing.
The defences pleaded were the general issue, a continuing tender of the amount claimed for the goods abstracted, and that, as to the $158.50 damage done to the goods by salt-water, the defendant was not liable, by reason of the fact that it and connecting lines had exercised due diligence ; and that it was occasioned by the act of God and perils of the sea and rough weather on the voyage of the steamship from Baltimore to Savannah, which was a part of the route over which the goods alleged to have been damaged were transported; and that liability for the perils
There is no evidence going to show that the goods were not properly stowed and dunnaged in the hold of the vessel ; the uncontradicted evidence is that they were, and the fact that they were injured by the “blowing” of bilge-water upon them, occasioned by the rolling and tossing of the vessel, is incontestable; this is the conceded proof. It is equally clear that the bill of lading or contract of affreightment stipulates for exemption from liability on the part of the steamship company for damage occasioned by “blowing” as well as by other “perils of the seas.” Had this carrier the right to stipulate for exemption from liability for damages arising from such a cause; and by accepting this bill of lading, did the consignee agree to this exemption ? Does such an exception violate any rule of public policy ? These questions are best answered by the very words of the law : “ Carriers by water have, from a very early period, been in the habit of making special acceptances of goods to be carried for hire, and guarding themselves by the bill of lading or contract of affreightment from losses occasioned by the £ perils of the seas.’ These words certainly denote the natural accidents peculiar to that element, and from losses thereby occasioned, the common carrier by water is, and always has been, exempt by the common law.” Angelí on Carriers, § 166, and cases cited in notes 1 and (a) there. That the collection of seawater in the bottom of vessels is one of the ordinary incidents of a sea voyage, dependent, as to its quantity, upon the state of the weather and the smoothness of the water, and that damage may sometimes result to goods from this cause, is made too evident by the testimony in this case to be questioned. It was proved, as we have seen, and not
All of this verdict, except that covering the damage occasioned by the shortage in the goods, is contrary to law, and has no evidence to support it, and to this extent is to be set aside. As to the amount of sixty-nine dollars and fifty cents, it must stand, but the plaintiffs must pay costs both in this and in the superior court. This dispenses with the necessity of considering other questions made in the record. With this qualification, the judgment of the superior court is reversed.
69 Ga., 506.