107 F. 146 | 2d Cir. | 1901
In May, 1898, at Buenos Ayres, the steamship took on board 2,000 hides shipped to Weil Bros., which were stowed in the “spare bunker,” — a part of No. 2 lower hold par
“The provisions in the hill of lading, and which .exempted the ship from the consequences of damage arising from sweating, natural decay, all damage or injury, while on hoard craft or in store, perils of the seas, rivers, or navigation, of whatever nature <m kind soever, * * * and that the condition of the goods on arrival was the result of sweating, heat, or natural decay due lo the inherent or natural condition of the goods, or latent dampness thereof due to the welting in craft coming to the ship, or while In store or on shore, or to latent defects in the curing thereof. By an amendment to the answer, the claimant averred that the owners of the said vessel had used due diligence to make her seaworthy, and to have her properly outfitted and equipped for the voyage, and invoked the protection of the Harter act.”
The damaged goods were either worthless or were materially injured, by entire or partial offensive decay; and tbe question of fact was whether this injury was owing to having been wetted by sea water on the voyage, or to heat and decay caused by wetness or insufficient curing before shipment. Upon this question the experts differed materially. On (he pari of the libelants, the experts urged that the mass of wetness which was manifest to them in tbe injured hides, and the destruction which it had caused, showed the presence of water in quantities, while an injury caused by the existence of dampness or incomplete drying after the usual arsenical bath before shipment universally manifests itself in a beat damage, which creates a hardness and slops the pores in the hide scv that it will not absorb tan bark; but the witness for the libelants, of perhaps the largest: experience and knowledge, said (what is obviously true) that a lot of bide put in the hold of a vessel in a very moist or thoroughly wet condition, and remaining there two months, would become rotten on tlie voyage. Tbe experts for the claimants were of opinion that the damage was by the heating or fermentation, during an unusually long voyage in hot weather, of a portion of the hides, which had been either insufficiently cured, or had not been adequately dried after the arsenical bath, and pointed to.the fact that hides damaged by sea
Inasmuch as the claimants have shown affirmatively the facts which exempt the ship from liability, they were entitled to decrees in their favor. The decrees of the district court are affirmed, with costs.