Liverpool & Great Western Steam Co. v. Phenix InsuranceLiverpool & Great Western Steam Co. v. Phenix Insurance
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is аn appeal by a steamship company from a decree rendered against it upon a libel' in admiralty, “ in a cause of action arising from breach of contract,” brought by an insurance company, claiming to be subrogated to the rights of the owners of goods shipped on board the Montana, one of the appellant’s steamships, at New York, to be carried to Liverpool, and lost or damaged by her stranding, because of the negligence, of her master and' officers, in. Holyhead Bay on the coast of Wales, before reaching her destination.
In behalf of the appellant, it was contended that the loss was caused by perils of the. sea, without any negligence on the part of master and officers ; that the appellant was not a common carrier; that it was exempt from liability by. the terms of the bills of lading; and-- that the libellant had not been subrogated to the rights of the owners of the goods.
It is to be remembered that the jurisdiction of this court to review .the decree below is limited to questions of law, and does not extend to questions of fact. Act of February 16, 1875, c. 77, § 1; 18 Stat. 315;
The Gazelle,
In the findings' of fact, the Circuit Court, after' stating, in
“ On the foregoing facts,” the only conclusion of law stated by the Circuit Court (except those affecting the right of sub-rogation and the amount to be recovered) is in these words: “ The stranding of the Montana and the consequent damage to her cargo having been the direct result of the negligence of the master and officers of the steamer, the respondent is liable therefor.” Negligence is not here stated as a conclusion of law, but assumed as a fact already found. The conclusion of law is, in effect, that, such being the fact, the respondent is liable, notwithstanding any clause in the bills of lading.
The question of negligence is fully and satisfactorily discussed in the opinion of the District Court, reported in
11
Fed. Rep.
377,
and in that of the Circuit Court, reported in 22 Blatchford,
312.
It is largely, if not wholly, a question of fact, the decision of which by the Circuit Court cannot be ■reviewed here; and so far as it can possibly be held to be or to involve a question of law, it is sufficient to say that the circumstances of the case, as found by the Circuit Court, clearly-warrant, if they do not require, a court or jury, charged with the duty of determining issues of fact, to find that the
The contention that the appellant is not a, common carrier may also be shortly disposed of. • • ■
By the settled law, in the absence of ¡¡some valid agreement to the contrary, the owner of a general ship, carrying goods for hire, whether employed in internаl, in coasting or in foreign commerce,/s. a common carrier, with the liability of'an insurer against all losses, except- ;only such two irresistible causes as the act of God and public enemies. Molloy, bk. 2, c. 2, § 2; Bac. Ab. Carrier, A;
Barclay v. Cuculla y Gana,
In the present case, the Circuit Court has found as facts: “ The Montana was an ocean steamer, built of iron,-and performed regular service as a common carrier of merchandise and passengers between the ports of' Liverpool, England, and New York, in the line commonly known as the Guión- Line. By her, and by other ships in that line, the respondent was such common carrier. On March 2, 1880, the Montana left the port of New York, on one of her, regular voyages,-.bound for Liverpool, England, With a full cargo, consisting of -about twenty-four hundred tons of merchandise, and with'-passén-gers.” The bills of lading, annexed to the answer and- to the findings of fact, show that the four shipments in question amounted to less than one hundred and thirty tons, or hardly more than one twentieth part of the whole cargo. It is clear, therefore, upon this record, that .the appellant is a common carrier, and liable as such, unless exempted by some clause in the bills of lading.
In each of the bills of lading, the exceрted perils, for loss or damage from which it is stipulated that the appellant shall not be responsible^' include “ barratry of master or mariners,” and all perils of the seas, rivers or navigation, described more particularly in one of the bills of lading as “ collision, stranding or other periLo^fhe seas, rivers or navigation, of whatever nature or kind sfiever, and howsoever .such collision, stranding or other peril may'be caused,” and in the other three bills of
If the bills of lading had not contained the clause last quoted,, it is quite clear that the other clauses would not have relieved the appellant from liability for the damage to the goods from the stranding of the ship through the negligence of her officers. Collision or stranding is,' doubtless, a peril of the seas; and a policy of insurance against perils of the seas covers a loss by stranding оr collision, although' arising from the negligence of the master or crew, because the insurer assumes to indemnify the assured against losses from particular perils, and the assured does not warrant that his servants shall use due care to avoid them.
General Ins. Co.
v.
Sherwood,
We are then brought to the consideration of the principal question in the case, namely, the validity and effect of that-dause in each bill of lading by which the appellant undertook to exempt itself from all. responsibility for loss or damage by perils of the sea, arising from negligence of the master and. crew of the ship.
That case, indeed, differed in its facts from the • case at par. It was an action brought against a railroad corporation by a drover who, while being' carried with his cattle on one of its trains under an agreement which it had required him to sign, and by which he was to pay certain rates for the carriage of the cattle, to pass free himself, and to take the risks of all injuries to himself or to them, was injured by the negligence of the defendant or its servants.
The judgment for the plaintiff, however, was not rested upon the form of the agreement, or upon any difference between' railroad corporations and other carriers, or between carriers by land, and carriers by sea, or between carriers of passengers and carriers of goods, but upon the broad ground that no public carrier is permitted by law to stipulate for an exemption from the consequences of the negligence of himself or his servants.
The very question there at issue, defined at the beginning of the opinion as “ whether a' railroad company, carrying passengers for hire, ean lawfully stipulate not to be answerable for their own or their servants’ negligence in reference to such carriage,” was stated a little further on in more general terms as “ the question before propounded, namely, whether common' carriers may excuse themselves from liability for negligence; ” and a negative answer to the question thus stated was a necessary link in the logical chain of conclusions announced at the end of the opinion as constituting the ratio decidendi. 11 Wall. 359, 363, 384.
The course of reasoning, supported by elaborate argument and illustration, and by copious references to authorities, by which those conclusions were reached, may be summed up as follows:
By the common law of England and America before the Declaration of Independence, recognized by the weight of English authority for half a century afterwards, and upheld by decisions of the highest courts of many States of the Union,
The only important modification by the Congress of the United States of the previously existing law on this subject is the act of 1851, to limit the liability of' ship-owners, (Act of March 3, 1851, c. 43; 9 Stat. 635; Kev. Stat. §§ 4282-4289,) and that act leaves them- liable without limit for their own negligence, and liable to the extent of the ship and freight for the negligence or misconduct of their master and crew..
The employment of a common carrier is a public one, charging him with the duty of accommodating the public in the line'of his employment. A common carrier is such by virtue of his occupation, not by virtue of the responsibilities under -which he rests. Even if the extent of these responsibilities is restricted by law or by contract, the nature of his occupation makes him a common carrier still. A common carrier may become a private carrier, or a bailee for hire, when, as a matter of accommodation or special engagement, he undertakes to carry something which it is not his business to carry. But when a carrier has a regularly established business for carrying all ■ or certain articles, and __ especially if that carrier is a corporation created for the purpose of the carrying trade, and the carriage of the articles is embraced within the scope of its chartered, powers, it is a common carrier,- and а special contract about its responsibility does not divest it Of that character.
The fundamental principle, upon which the law of common carriers was established, was to secure the utmost care and diligence in the performance of their duties. That end was effected in regard to goods, by charging the common carrier as an insurer, and in regard to passengers, by exacting the highest degree of carefulness and diligence. A carrier who stipulates not to be bound to the exercise of care and diligence seeks to put off the essential duties "his employment.
The carrier and his customer do not stand upon a footing of equality. The individual customer has no real freedom of choice. lie cannot afford to higgle or stand out, and seek redress in the courts. He prefers rather to accept any bill of-lading, or to sign any paper, that the carrier presents; and in most cases he has no alternative but to do this, or to abandon his business.
Special contracts between the carrier and the' customer, the terms of which are just and reasonable and • not contrary to public policy, are upheld; such as those exempting the carrier from responsibility for losses happening from accident, or from dangers of - navigation .that no human skill or diligence can guard against; or for money or other valuable articles, liable to be stolen or damaged — unless informed of their character or value-; or for perishable articles or live animals, when injured without default or negligence of the carrier. • But the law does not allow a public carrier to abandon altogether his obligations to- the public, and to stipulate for exemptions which are unreasonable and impi’oper, amounting to an abnegation of the essential duties of his employment.
It being against the policy of the law to allow stipulations which will relieve the railroad company from the exercise of' care or diligence, or which, in other words, will excuse it for negligence in the performance of its duty, the company remains liable for such negligence.
This analysis of the opinion in
Railroad Co.
v.
Lockwood
shows that it affirms and rests upon the doctrine that an express stipulation by any common carrier for hire, in a contract of-carriage, that he shall be exempt from liability for losses caused-
The general doctrine is nowhere statethmore explicitly than in Hart v. Pennsylvania Railroad and Phoenix Ins. Co. v. Erie Transportation Co., just cited; and there does not appear to us to be anything in the decision .or opinion in either of those cases which supports the appellant’s position.
In the one case, a contract fairly made between a railroad company and the owner of the goods, and signed by the latter, by which he was to pay a rate of freight based on the condition that the company assumed liability only to the extent of an-agreed vаluation of the goods, even in case of loss or damage by its negligence, was upheld as just and reasonable, because a proper and lawful .mode of securing a due proportion between the amount for which the carrier might be responsible and the compensation which he received, and of protecting himself against extravagant or fanciful valuations — which is quite different from exempting himself from all responsibility whatever for the negligence of himself and his servants.
In the other, the decision was that, as a common carrier might lawfully obtain from a third person insurance on the goods carried against loss by the usual perils, though occasioned by negligence of the carrier’s servants, a stipulation in a bill of lading that the carrier, when liable for the loss, should have the'benefit of any insurance effected on the goods, was valid as between the carrier and the shipper, even when the negligence of the carrier’s servants was the cause of the loss. Upholding an agreement by which the carrier receives the benefit of any insurance obtained by the shipper from a third person is quite different from permitting the carrier to compel
It was argued for the appellant, that the law of New York, the
lex loci contractus,
was settled by recent decisions of the Court of Appeals of that state in favor of the right of a carrier of goods or passengers, by land or water, td stipulate for exemption from all liability for his own negligence.
Mynard
v.
Syracuse Railroad,
But on this subject, as on any question depending upon mercantile law and not upon local statute or usage, it is well settled that the courts of the United States are not bound by iecisions of the courts of the State, but will exercise their 3wn judgment, even when their jurisdiction attaches only by reason of the citizenship of the parties, in an action at law of »vhich the courts of the State have concurrent jurisdiction, md upon a contract made and to be performed within the State.
Railroad Co.
v.
Lockwood,
It was also argued in behalf of the appellant, that the validity and effect of this contract, to be performed prinсipally upon the high seas, should be governed by the general maritime law, and that by that law such stipulations are valid. To this argument there are two answers.
First. There is not shown to be any such general maritime law. The industry of the learned counsel for the appellant has collected articles of codes, decisions of courts and opinions of commentators in France, Italy, Germany and Holland, tending to show that, by the law administered in those countries, such a stipulation would be valid. But those decís-
Second. The general maritime law is in force in this country, or in any other, so far only as it has been adopted by the laws or usages thereof; and no rule of the general maritime law (if any exists) concerning the validity of such a stipulation as that now before us has ever been adopted in the United States or in England, or recognized in the admiralty courts of either.
The
Lottawanna,
.It was argued in this court, as it had been below, that as the contract was to be chiefly performed on board of a British vessel and to be finally completed in Great Britain, and the damage occurred in Great Britain, the case should be determined by the British law, and that by that law the clause exempting the appellant from liability for losses occasioned by the negligence of its servants was valid.
- The Circuit Court declined to yield to this argument, upon two grounds: 1st. That as the answer expressly admitted the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court asserted in the libel, and the law of Great Britain had not been set up in the answer nor proved as a fact, the case must be decided according to the law 'of the Federal courts, as a question of general commercial law. 2d. That there was nothing in the contracts of. affreightment to indicate a contracting in view of any other law than the
The law of Great Britain since the Declaration of Independence is the law of a foreign country, and, like any other ■foreign law, is matter of fact, which the courts of this country cannot be presumed to be acquainted with, or to have judicial knowledge of, unless it is pleaded and proved.
The rule that the courts of one country cannot take cognizance of the law of another without plea and proof has been constantly maintained, at law and in equity, in England and America.
Church
v. Hubbart,
The decision in
Lamar
v.
Micou,
The rule is as well established in courts of admiralty as in courts of common law or courts of equity. Chief Justice Marshall, delivering judgment in the earliest admiralty appeal in which he took part, said: “That the laws of a foreign
So’ Sir William Scott, in the High Court of Admiralty, said: “Upon all principles of common jurisprudence,"foreign law is always to be proved as a fact.” The Louis, 2 Dodson, 210, 241. To the same effect are the judgments of the Judicial Committee of The Privy Council in The Prvnce George, -4 Moore P.- C. 21, and The Peerless, 13 Moore P. C. 484. And in a more recent case, cited by the. appellant, Sir Bobert . Phillimore, said: “ I have no doubt whatever that those who rely upon the difference between the foreign law and the law of the forum in which the case is brought are bound to establish that difference by competent evidence.” The Duero, L. R. 2 Ad. & Ec. 393, 397.
■ 'It was, therefore, rightly held by the Circuit Court, upon the pleadings and proofs upon which the case had been argued, that the question whether the British law differed from our own was not open!
- But it appears by the supplemental record, certified to this court in obedience to a writ of
certiorari,
that after the Circuit.Court had delivered its opinion and filed its findings of fact and conclusions of law, and before the entry of' a final decree, the appellant moved for leave to amend the answer by averring the existence of' the British law and its applicability to this case, and to prove that law; and that the motion ivas denied by the Circuit Court, because the proposed allega
On such a question we should be slow to .overrule a decision of the Circuit Court. But we are not prepared to say that if, ¿upon full consideration, justice should appear to require it, we might not do so, and order the case to be remanded to that court with directions to allow the answer to be amended and proof of the foreign law to be introduced.
The Adeline,
TJnder these circumstances, we prefer not to rest our judgment upon technical grounds of pleading or evidence, but, taking the same course as in Merchants' Ins. Co. v. Allen, just cited, proceed to consider the question of the effect of the proof offered, if admitted,
It appears by-the cases cited in behalf of the appellant, and is hardly denied by the appellee, that under the existing law of Great Britain, as declared by the latest decisions of her courts, common carriers, by land or sea, except so far' as they are controlled by the provisions of the Bailway and Canal Traffiс Act of 1854, are permitted to exempt themselves by express contract from responsibility for losses occasioned by negligence of their servants. The Duero, L. R. 2 A.d. & Ec. 393 ; Taubman v. Pacific Co., 26 Law Times (N. S.) 704; Steel v. State Line Steamship Co., 3 App. Cas. 72; Manchester &c. Railway v. Brown, 8 App. Cas. 703. It may therefore be assumed that the stipulation now in question, though invalid by our law,' would be valid according to the law of Great Britain.
- The general rule as to what law should prevail, in case of á conflict of laws concerning a private contract, was concisely and exactly stated before the Declaration of Independence by Lord Mansfield (as reported by Sir William Blackstone, who had been of counsel in the case) as follows : “ The general rule,
The recent decisions by eminent English judges, cited at the bar, so clearly affirm an,d so strikingly illustrate the rule, as applied to cases more or less resembling the case before us, that a full statement of them will not be inappropriate.
In Peninsular & Oriental Co. v. Shand, 3 Moore P. C. (N. S.) 272, 290, Lord Justice Turner, delivering judgment in .the Privy Council, reversing a decision of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, said, “ The general rule is, that the law of the country where a contract is made governs as to the nature, the obligation and the interpretation of it. The parties to a contract are either the subjects’of the power there ruling, or as temporary, residents owe it a temporary allegiance; in either case equally, they must be understood to submit to the law there prevailing, and to agree to its action upon their contract. It is, of course, immaterial that such agreement is not expressed in terms; it is equally an agreement in fact, presumed de jure, and a foreign court interpreting or enforcing it on any contrary, rule defeats the intention of the parties, as well as neglects to observe the recognized comity of nations.”
It was accordingly held, that the law of .England, and not the French law in force at Mauritius, governed the validity and construction' of a contract made in an English port between an English company and an English subject to carry him hence by way of Alexandria, and Suez to Mauritius, and containing .a stipulation that the company should not be liable for loss of passengers’ baggage, whiсh the court in Mauritius liad held to be invalid by the French law. 3 Moore P. C. (N. S.) 278.
Lord Justice Turner observed, that it was a satisfaction to find that the Court of Cassation in France had pronounced a judgment to the same effect, under precisely similar circum
The case of Lloyd v. Guibert, 6 B. & S. 100; S. C. L. R. 1 Q. B. 115; decided in the Queen’s Bench before, and ■ in the Exchequer Chamber after, the decision in the Privy Council just referred to, presented this peculiar state of facts: A French ship owned by Frenchmen was chartered by the master, in pursuance of his general authority as such, in a Danish West India island, to a British subject, who knew her to be French, for a voyage from St. Marc in ITayti to Havre, London or Liverpool at the charterer’s option, and he shipped a cargo from St. Marc to Liverpool. On the voyage, the ship sustained damage from a storm which compelled her to put into a Portuguese pоrt. There the master lawfully borrowed money on bottomry, and repaired the ship, and she carried her cargo safe to Liverpool. The bondholder proceeded in an English court of admiralty against the ship, freight and cargo, which being insufficient to satisfy the bond, he brought an action at law to recover the deficiency against the owners of the ship ; and they abandoned the ship and freight in such a manner as by the French law absolved them from liability. It was held, that the French law governed the case, and therefore the plaintiff could not recover.
It thus appears that in that case the question of the -intent of the parties was complicated with that of the lawful authority of the master; and the decision in the Queen’s Bench 'was put wholly upon the ground that the extent of his authority to bind the ship, the freight or the owners was limited by the law of the home port of the ship, of which her flag was sufficient notice. 6 B. & S. 100. That decision was in accordance with an earlier one of Mr. Justice Story, in
Pope
v.
Nickerson,
The judgment in the Exchequer Chamber in Lloyd v. Guibert was put upon somewhat broader ground. Mr. Justice "Willes, in delivering'that judgment,_ said: “It is generally agreed that the law of the place where the contract is made is prima facie that which the parties intended, or ought to be presumed to have adopted as the .footing upon which 'they dealt, and that such law ought therefore to prevail in the absence of circumstances indicating a different intention, as, for instance, that the contract is to be entirely performed elsewhere, or that the subject matter is immovable property situated in another country, and so forth; which latter, though sometimes treated asulistinct rules, appear more properly to be classed as exceptions to the more general one, by reason of the circumstancés indicating an intention to be bound by a law different from that of the place where the contract is made; which intention is inferred from the subject matter and from the surrounding circumstances, so far as they are relevant to construe and determine the character of the contract.” L. R. 1 Q. B. 122, 123; 6 B. & S. 133.
It was accordingly held, conformably to the judgment in
Peninsular & Oriental Co.
v.
Shand,
above cited, that the law of England, as the law of the place of final performance or port оf discharge, did not govern the case, because it was “ manifest that what was to be done at Liverpool was but a small portion of the entire service to be rendered, and that the character of the contract cannot be determined thereby,” although as to the mode of delivery the usages of Liverpool would govern. L. R. 1 Q. B. 125, 126; 6 B. & S. 137. It was' jthen observed that the law of Portugal, in force where the bottomry bond was given, could not affect the case; that the law of Iiayti had not been mentioned or relied upon in argument; and that “in favor of the law of .Denmark, there
•The decision was, in substance, that the presumption that the contract should be governed by the law of Denmark, in force where it was made, was not overcome in favor of the law of Englandy-'by the fact that tlje voyage was to an English port and the charterer an Englishman, nor in favor of the law of Portugal by the fact that the bottomry bond was given in a Portuguese port; but that the ordinary presumption was overcome by the consideration that French owners and an English charterer, making a charter party in the French language of a Frenéh ship, in a port where both were foreigners, to be performed partly there by weighing anchor for the port of loading, (a place where both parties would also be foreigners,) partly at that port by taking the cargo on board, principally on the high! seas, and partly by final delivery in the port of discharge, must have intended to look to the law of France as governing the question of the' liability of the owner beyond the value of the ship and freight.
In two later cases, in each of which the judgment of the Queen’s Bench Division was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, the law of the place where the contract was made was held to govern, notwithstanding some of the facts strongly pointed towards the application of another law; in tire one case, to the law of the ship’s flag; and in the other, to the law of the port where that part of the contract was to be performed, for the nonperformance оf which.the suit was brought.
In the first case, a bill of lading, issued in England in the English language to an English subject, by a company described therein as an English company and in fact registered both in England and in Holland, for goods shipped at Singar pore, an English port, to be carried to a port in Java, a Dutch possession, in a vessel with a Dutch name, registered in Holland, commanded by a Dutch master and carrvine1 the
As Lord Justice Bindley observed: “This conclusion is not at all at variance with Lloyd v. Guibert, but rather in accordance with it. It is true that in that case the law of the flag prevailed ; but the intention of the parties was admitted to be the crucial test; and the law of the ship’s flag was considered as the law intended by the parties to govern their contract, as there really was no other law which they could reasonably be supposed to have contemplated. The plaintiff there was English, the defendant French; the lex loci contractus was Danish; the ship was French; her master was French, and the contract was ih the French language. The voyage was from Hayti to Liverpool. The facts here are entirely different, and so is the inference to be deduced from them. The lex loci con-tractus was here English, and ought to prevail unless there is some good ground to the contrary. So far from there being such ground, the inference is very strong that the parties really intended to contract with reference to English law.” 10 Q. B. D. 540.
In the remaining English case, a, contract made in London between two English mercantile houses, by which one agreed to sell to the other 20,000 tons of Algerian esparto, to be shipped by a French company at an Algerian port .on board vessels furnished by the purchasers at London, and to be paid for by them, in London on arrival, was held to be an English contract, governed by English law; notwithstanding that the shipment of the goods in Algiers had been prevented by vis mayor, which, by the law of France in force there, excused the seller from performing the contract. Jacobs v. Credit Lyonnais, 12 Q. B. D. 589.
This court has not heretofore hacl occasion to'consider by what law contracts like those now before us should be expounded. But it has often affirmed and acted on the general rule, that contracts are to be governed, as to their nature, their validity and their interpretation, by the law of the place where they were made, unless the contracting parties clearly appear to have had some other law in view.’
Cox
v.
United States;
The opinion in
Watts
v. Camors, just cited, may require a word or two of explanation. It was there contested whether, in a charter party made at New Orleans between an English owner and an American charterer of an English ship for a voyage from New Orleans to a port on the continent of Europe, a clause regulating the amount payable in case of any breach of the contract was to be considered as liquidating the damages, or as a penalty only. Such was.the question of which the. court said that if it depended upon the intent of the parties, and consequently upon the law which they must be presumed to have had in view, they “must be presumed to look to the general maritime law of the two countries, and not to the local law of the State in which the contract is signed.”
Some reliance was placed by the appellant upon the follow* ing observations of Mr. Justice Story, sitting in the Circuit Court:
“ If a contract is to be performed, partly in one country aim partly in another country, it admits of a double aspect, nay, it has a double operation, and is, as to the particular parts, to be interpreted distinctively; that is, according to the laws of the country where the particular parts are to be performed or executed. This would be clearly seen in the case of a bill of lading of goods, deliverable in portions or parts at ports in different countries. Indeed, in cases of contracts of affreightment and shipment, it must often happen that the contract looks to different portions of it to be performed in different countries; some portions at the home port, some at the foreign port, and some at the return port.” “ The goods here were deliverable in Philadelphia; and what would be an effectual delivery thereof, in the sense of the law, (which is sometimes a nice question,) would, beyond question, be settled by the law of Pennsylvania. But, to what extent the owners of the schooner are liable to the shippers for a non-fulfilment of a contract of shipment of the master — whether they incur an absolute or a limited liability, must depend upon the nature and extent of the authority which the owners gave him, and this is to be measured by the. law of Massachusetts,” where the ship and her owners bеlonged.' Pope v. Nickerson,3 Story, 465 , 484, 485.
But in that case the last point stated was the only one in judgment; and the previous remarks evidently had -regard to such distinct obligations included in the contract' Of affreightment as are to be performed in a particular port — for instance, what would be an effectual delivery,- so as to terminate the liability of the carrier, which, in the absence of express stipulation on that subject, is ordinarily governed by the law or usage of the port of discharge.
Robertson
v.
Jackson,
2 C. B.
In
Morgan
v.
New Orleans &c.
Railroad,
In
Hale
v.
New Jersey Steam Navigation Co.,
In
Dyke
v.
Erie Railway,
In
McDaniel
v.
Chicago & Northwestern Railway,
24 Iowa,
So in Pennsylvania Co. v. Fairchild, 69 Illinois, 260, where á railroad company received in Indiana goods consigned . to Leavenworth, in Kansas, and carried them to’ Chicago in Illinois, and there delivered them to another railroad company, in whose custody they were destroyed by fire, the Supreme Court of Illinois Held that the case must be governed by the law of Indiana, by which the first company was not liable for the loss of the goods after they passed into the custody of thé next carrier in the line of transit.
The other cases’ in the courts of the several states, cited at the bar, afford no certain or satisfactory guide. Two cases, held not to be governed by a statute of Pennsylvania providing that no railroad corporation should be liable for ajoss of passenger’s baggage beyond $300, unless the excess in value was disclosed and paid for, were decided (whether rightly -or not we need not consider) without much reference to authority, and upon their peculiar circumstances — the one case, on the ground that a contract by a New Jersey corporation to carry a passenger and his baggage from a wharf in Philadelphia across the Delaware Diver, in which the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey had equal rights of navigation and
This review of the principal cases demonstrates that according to the great preponderance, if not the uniform concurrence, of authority, the general rule, that the nature, the obligation and the interpretation of a contract are to be governed by the law of the place where it is made, unless the parties at the time of making it have some other law in view, requires a contract of аffreightment, made in one country between citizens or residents thereof, and the performance of which begins there, to be governed by the law of that country, unless the parties, when entering into the contract, clearly manifest a mutual intention that it shall be governed by the law of some other country.
There does not appear to us to be anything in either of the bills of lading in the present case, tending to show that the contracting parties looked to the law of England, or to any other law than that of the place' where the contract was made.
The bill of lading for the bacon and hams was made and dated at New York, and signed by the ship’s agent there. It
The contract being made at New York, the ship-ownér having a place of business there, and the shipper being an American, both parties must be presumed to have submitted themselves to the law there prevailing, and to have agreed to its action upon their contract. The contract is a single one, and its principal object, the transportation of the goods, is one continuous act, to bеgin in the port of New York, to be chiefly .performed on the high seas, and to .end at the port of Liverpool. The facts that the goods are to be delivered at Liverpool, and the freight and primage, therefore, payable there in sterling currency, do not make the contract an English contract, or refer to the English law the question of the liability of the carrier for the negligence of the master and crew in the course of the voyage. Peninsular & Oriental Co. v. Shand, Lloyd v. Guibert, and Chartered Bank of India v. Netherlands Steam Navigation Co., before cited.
It was argued' that as each bill of lading, drawn up and signed by the carrier and assented to by the shipper, contained a stipulation that the carrier should not be liable for losses by perils of the sea arising from the. negligence of its servants, both parties must be presumed to have intended to be bound by that stipulation, and -must ■ therefore, the stipulation being void by our law and valid by the law of England, have intended that their contract should be governed by the English laAv , and one passage in the judgment in
Peninsular & Oriental Co.
v.
Shand
gives sóme color to the argument. 3 Moore P. C. (N. S.) 291. But the facts of the two cases are
■ Our conclusion on the principal question in the case may be summed up thus: Each of the bills of lading is an American and not an English contract, and, so far as concerns the oblb gation to carry the goods in safety, is to be governed by the American law, and not by the law, municipal or mаritime, of any other country. By our law, as declared by this court, the stipulation by which the appellant undertook to exempt itself from liability for the negligence of its servants is contrary to public policy and therefore void ; and the loss of the goods was a breach of the contract, for which the shipper might maintain a suit against the carrier. This being so, the fact that the place where' the vessel went ashore, in consequence of the negligence of'the master and officers in the prosecution of the voyage, was upon the coast of Great Britain, is quite immaterial.
This conclusion is in accordance with the decision of Judge Brown in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York in The Brantford City, 29 Fed. Rep. 373,'which appears to us to proceed upon more satisfactory grounds than the opposing decision of Mr. Justice Chitty, sitting alone in the Chancery Division, made since this case was argued, and, so far as we are informed, not reported in the Law Reports, nor affirmed or considered by any of the higher courts of Great Britain. In re Missouri Steamship Co., 58 Law Times (N. S.) 377.
The question of the subrogation of the libellant to the rights of the shippers against the carrier presents no serious difficulty.
From the very nature of the contract of insurance as a contract of indemnity, the insurer, upon paying* to the assured the amount of a loss, total or partial, of the goods insured, becomes, without any formal assignment, or any express stipulation to that effect in the policy, subrogated in a corresponding amount' to the assured’s right of action against the carrier or other person responsible for the loss; and in a court of admiralty may assert in his own name that right of the shipper.
The Potomac,
In the present case, the libellant, before the filing of the libel,.paid to each of the shippers the greater part of his insurance, and thereby became entitled to recover so much, at least, from the carrier. The rest of the insurance money was paid by the libellant before the argument in the District Court, and that amount might have been claimed by amendment, if not under the original libel.
The Charles
Morgan,
The appellant does, however, object that the decree should not include the amount of the loss on the cotton shipped under' through bills of lading from Nashville to Liverpool. This objection is grounded on a clause in those bills of lading, which is not found in the bill of lading of the bacon and hams shipped at New York; and on the adjudication in
Phoenix Ins. Co.
v.
Erie Transportation
Co.,
But it behooves a carrier setting up such a defence to show clearly that the insurance on the goods is one which by the terms of his contract he is entitled to the benefit of.
Inman
v.
South Carolina Railway, ante,
128. The through bills of lading of the сotton are signed by an agent of the railroad companies and the steamship company, “severally, but. not jointly,” and contain, in separate columns, two entirely distinct sets of “ terms and conditions,” the first relating exclusively to the land carriage by the railroads, and their connections, and the second to the ocean transportation by the steamship. The clause relied on, providing that in case of any loss or damage of the goods, whereby any legal liability shall be incurred, that company only shall be held answerable in whose actual custody the goods are at the time, “ and the carrier so liable shall have the full benefit of any' insurance that may have been effected upon or on account of said goods,” is inserted in the midst of the terms and conditions defining the liability of the railroad companies' and is omitted in those defining the liability of the steamship company, plainly,signifying an intention that this clause should not apply to the latter. It is quite clear, therefore, that the appellant has no right to claim the benefit of any insurance on the goods. See
Railroad Co.
v.
Androscoggin Mills,
The result of these considerations is that the decree of the Circuit Court is-in all respects correct and must be
Affirmed..