282 F. 1000 | S.D.N.Y. | 1921
(after stating the facts as above).
In this view the charterer’s duties extended to no more than reasonable care in the selection of a competent man, and there is no just ground to challenge the selection of the charterer in this particular case. Individually, neither the libelant nor the charterer is at fault for the fault of Murray, but, as Murray was in law the agent of the libelant, his fault is by law charged against him. Therefore the charterer appears to me to have made a good excuse for his failure to return the barge, and against him I dismiss the libel.
The last question is whether the tug used sufficient care to see that her orders had been carried out. The customary way is to accept the-signal of the forward barge, relayed, as it should be, from the stem1 barges, and this the tug did. The fault charged against her is that she did not observe the failure of the rear barge to conform. Looking aft from the pilot house of the tug, her master could see only a group - or cluster of seven lights tailing in his wake. Two of these were on the first barge, two on the second, and three in the third. I accept the statement of the master and of the deckhand that it was impossible-to tell how far away from the middle barge the three rear lights were. It was raining and dark, and those lights were nearly half a mile away. There was no opportunity for any perspective under those circumstances, and the tug, having got the proper relay answer, had the right to assume that all had been properly done.
But it is argued that the tug, having a searchlight, did not use it. There is no evidence as to how far the searchlight would carry, except the fact that the floating barge was subsequently picked up by it. One.
I think the charge is too speculative to be the basis of fault. In the first place, it seems to me within the limits of proper care by the tug that she should have relied upon the answer which she got. She had a right to assume that in so simple a duty as lengthening out of the hawsers the bargemen had done their duty. I will not say it would not have been an added caution to use such other means as she had to make assurance doubly sure, but I cannot think that it was necessary. But it is not necessary to rest'the case .on this. We do not know whether the searchlight would have shown anything more than the towing lights themselves. That depends entirely upon what its range was, and how far in the night it would have disclosed the position of the third barge. That necessarily rests wholly in speculation, and as the burden is upon the libelant to make out a case against the tug, I think she fails.
Finally, I am not quite clear as to what the tug could have done, had she found out that the barge had not followed orders. She clearly could not have left the barges without motive power. All she could have done was again to give her order to lengthen out. Whether this would have induced the bargeman to do his duty the second time is open at least to question. Possibly he would have understood it; possibly he would not. Certainly the loss resulted primarily from his failure to obey orders, and it seems to me merely supposition whether a repetition of the order would have had any different result. For these reasons, I think that the case against the tug has not been made out, and that the loss should fall upon the principal of the bargeman.
It results that the libel should be dismissed, with costs.
(gu-oFor other oases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes
@=>For other oases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes