17 F.2d 366 | 9th Cir. | 1927
(after stating the facts as above). The trial court found that the collision was the result of faulty navigation upon the part of the captain of the Dodd in maneuvering his ship around the turn in the channel. Notwithstanding the
Nor do we find ground to question the finding of the trial court that the tug was not in fault in cutting, as she did, the towline. The evidence tends strongly to the conclusion that but for the severing of the line the tug would have been dragged into the collision and probably crushed between the battleship and the Dodd, with possible loss of life.
In the appellant’s libel against the owners of the tug and in its answer to the libel of the United States, the only fault it charged against the tug was that she negligently and carelessly drove the steamship into collision with the battleship. On the trial in the court below counsel for the appellant in his opening statement said: “The final cause of the damage was undoubtedly the towboat letting go, which put the Dodd in a position where the collision was unavoidable.” The same view was taken of the cause of the collision in the appellant’s petition for rehearing, in which it was said that the real question before the court was whether at the time when the towline was dropped the tug was justified in dropping it. On the appeal the contention is made for the first time that the tug lacked sufficient power for the tow-age service. Undoubtedly a tug owner impliedly undertakes to furnish a vessel of sufficient capacity and power for the performance of the contemplated service under ordinary conditions. The E. T. Williams (D. C.) 126 F. 871. But a tug is not an insurer of the safe delivery of the tow. The obligation imposed on it by law is that it shall be reasonably adequate to the service undertaken, The Startle (C. C.) 115 F. 555, and the burden of proofs rests upon the tow to show that the tug was negligent, The L. P. Dayton, 120 U. S. 337, 351, 7 S. Ct. 568, 30 L. Ed. 669. As regards the adequacy of the tug, the question is a practical one of reasonable sufficiency for the particular trip, in the judgment of skillful and prudent navigators. Said Judge Brown in The Allie & Evie (D. C.) 24 F. 745: “There is no other final criterion than the judgment of practical men versed in the business and the customs and usages of the time and place, viewed as representing the judgment and knowledge of the time.” The fact itself that the towage contract here was entered into was, in view of the knowledge and experience of both the parties thereto, evidence that in the judgment of practical men, versed in the business, the tug was regarded as possessed of sufficient power for the service contemplated. They knew the comparative weights of the two vessels and the horse power of each. The tug had taken the Dodd through the channel “several times.” The officers of the Dodd were familiar with the harbor and the channel. Her captain had been sailing regularly in and out of the harbor for the “last five years.” The chief officer had made the turn in the channel “100 times or more.” They must have known also the momentum of their own vessel when under way. Nowhere in the record is the capac
The decree is affirmed.