2 Binn. 308 | Pa. | 1810
delivered the court’s opinion.
This cause was brought before us, by a writ of error to the Court of Common Pleas, founded on a bill of exceptions which states all the evidence, and contains the charge of the court at large. It was an action on a policy of insurance on goods shipped by Pratt and Clarkson on board the ship Charles, on a voyage from the Savanna to the Danish island -of St. Thomas in the year 1805, when Denmark was a neutral power. The ship was owned by Pratt and Clarkson; and the captain and Isaac Thomas were joint agents of the plaintiffs, and supercargoes. The policy contained a warranty that the goods were American property, to be so proved here only, and it was fully proved that'the goods were the property of the plaintiffs, who are Americans. Some evidence was given to prove, that captain Stites had taken in three hundred and fifty boxes of sugar, and twenty-seven bales of beeswax, which in truth were Spanish property, and carried them under false papers as his own property; but they were not blended with the goods of the plaintiffs. The invoice and other papers respecting them, were distinct from those of the plaintiffs. After the evidence was closed, the counsel for the defendants insisted that the several matters given in evidence, ought to be allowed as decisive evidence to entitle the defendants to a verdict. I think it would have been mo.re proper, and would have brought the questions of law more to a point, if the counsel had proposed the particular matters on which they desired the opinion of the court to be given. Indeed it would have been impossible to give in charge to the jury, that the evidence was decisive on either side, without assuming the decision of facts, which is beyond
It has been made a question how this bill of exceptions is tó be understood, and what points are now open for discussion. If the president of the Court of Common Pleas had declared to the jury that the evidence was not decisive in favour of the defendants, I do not know that any objection could have been made to it. The evidence was legal, but how, far decisive, the jury were to judge. It has been determined by this court in the case of Burd v. The Lessee of Dansdale
, The judge’s charge appears to be in substance, this, that the conduct of captain Stites in covering Spanish property (if he did cover it) without the knowledge of the plaintiffs, could not affect the goods of the plaintiffs, which were not blended with the covered goods; and therefore if the,jury should be of opinion that the captain had on board Spanish property, and the plaintiffs participated in the act, their verdict should be given for the defendants; but if they should be of opinion that the plaintiffs had no knowledge of it, their verdict should be for the plaintiffs.
It is contended,on the part of the defendants, that the plaintiffs are answerable for the conduct of their captain and agent, and his conduct has been such as to break the warranty of American property, or at any rate to increase the risk of the voyage, so that the plaintiffs ought not to recover. It is not unlawful for a neutral to carry the goods of a belligerent. So far from it, that it is the constant practice
Judgment reversed, and Venire de novo.
Ante 80.