1 La. 349 | La. | 1830
delivered the opinion of the court. This suit is brought to obtain reparation for damages, which the plaintiffs alleged they have suffered as owners of the brig Jesse,by the negligent and unskilful towing of said vessel by the steamboat Grampus, down the Mississippi, &c. The owners of the boat are made defendants. The cause was tried by a jury in the court below, who found a verdict for |the plaintiffs, and assessed their damages to two thousand four hundred and fifty-eight dollars and sixty-five cents, for which, judgment was rendered and the defendants appealed.
The evidence of the case shows, that the brig was run aground near the shore of the river, whilst she was lashed to the steam-boat and whilst the latter vessel was in the act of towing her to sea for hire, according to the
There is a certain class of steam-boats called tow-boats, used by the owners in the business of towing vessels from New-Orleans down the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the ordinary occupation in which they are employed, and are publicly offered to all persons who may choose to hire them for this purpose.
The first question of importance in the present case, arises out of the bill of exception to the opinion of the judge a quo., by which he refused to instruct the jury, that if no negligence or misconduct on the part of
If these be the reasons which influenced the United States court in that case, they certainly are wholly inapplicable to the present.
The undertaking of the steam tow-boats, is to carry inanimate matter, without intelligence and uninfluenced by any moral power.
The vessels which are towed are almost entirely passive. Steam is the power by which they are moved, applied indirectly through the agency of the boat which is under the direction and management of her captain. By the contract for towing, he is bound to carry them safely to their destination, unless pre
We are of opinion that the situation of proprietors of tow-boats and the business A A they undertake, cannot legally authorize a relaxation of the severity and rigour of the rules applicable to commoa carriers. They differ from pilots, whose business is to point out the
It is however, probable, that no great difference in the responsibility of pilots and towers of boats could exist. The accidents for which both might be bound to repair, the consequent damages, must, from the similarity of the undertaking, be in all instances much alike, and only excusable by uncontrolable events.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the district court be affirmed with costs.
delivered the opinion of the court. In this case the plaintiff caused to be seized under a writ of attachment, a certain quantity of cotton, on board the steam-boat Pearl River, which was consigned by the defendant to A. & S.Fisk & co. of this city,who intervened in the present suit, and claim a lien on the cotton on account of advances made by them to the .consignor. The court below gave judgment in favor of the attaching creditor, from which the interveners appealed.
The evidence shows that the cotton seized was put on hoard the boat about the last of February or first of March, 1829, for which no bill of lading was given; but the captain of the boat had instructions to deliver ittoA.and S. Fisk &, co. to whom he was also the bear
Under these facts, the decision of the cause depends mainly on a proper construction of the art. 3214 of the Louisiana Code. According to this article, every consignee or commission agent who has made advances on goods consigned to him, or placed in his hands to be sold for account of the consignor, has a privilege for the amount of these advances, with interest and charges on the value of the goods, if they are at his diposal in his stores, or in a public warehouse; or if before their arrival he can show by a bill of lading, or letter of advice, that they have been dispatched to him, &c. The privilege here flowed requires one of two things to create it—either that the goods should be in the o . Possess^on °f the consignee, or that he should have received a bill of lading, or letter advis-
Such being the circumstances attendant on thisjetter of exchange, it cannot, without a most strained and unreasonable construction, be considered as a letter [of advice relative to the consignment of the cotton. The claim of the appellants is therefore not supported by this article, of the Code. Neither can these pretensions be aided by the actual delivery of the cotton to the master of the steam-boat,"for the purpose of being conveyed and delivered to them as consignees.
If they had been purchasers of the cotton from Bracy, at a stipulated price, and the Iat-ter had forwarded it to them, perhaps a deli-yery t[ie person who undertook to carry it, might be considered asa delivery to the ven-dees, even without an order to that effect, and would have screened them against attachments of the creditors of the vendor.
It cannot, however, be pretended in the present case with the least semblance of truth, that the mere delivery of the cotton to the master of the boat, changed its ownership. , , . , Bracy still remained the owner, and would . „ , . have continued to be such, even alter delivery to Fishes’, subject to their privilege for advances: previous to that event it was under the entire control of the owner, and liable to be seized by his creditors. This case differs in this respect from the case cited from 7 Mart. n. s. 137.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the parish court be affirmed with costs. .