THIS was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Missouri, sitting in equity.
The bill was filed by the Memphis Insurance Company, a corporation created by the laws of Tennessee, and whose stockholders were citizens thereof, against the owners of the steamboat Convoy. In February, 1849, they received on board of their boat a large amount of cotton, to be carried from Memphis to New Orleans. The boat and cargo were destroyed by fire on the downward voyage, without any fault or negligence of the owners, their agents, or servants. The insurance company paid the owners of the cotton the amounts of their several insurances, and then filed this bill to recover such sums from the owners of the boat. The facts are more particularly stated in the opinion of the court. The Circuit Court held the owners of the boat liable, and rendered a decree against them for the amounts paid by the insurance company.
There were fifteen different bills of lading mentioned in the bill. The first five, covering three hundred and eighty-eight bales of cotton, stipulated for the delivery at New Orleans, 'the dangers of the river only excepted.' In the sixth, seventh, and eighth, covering one hundred and twenty-one bales, 'the dangers of the river and unavoidable accidents only' are excepted. In the ninth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, covering two hundred and seventy-four bales, 'the unavoidable dangers of the river and fire only' are excepted; and in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, 'the dangers of the river and fire only' are excepted. The ground upon which the owners of the boat were claimed to be liable upon those bills of lading, where 'fire' was excepted, was, that the fire arose from carelessness. But in the progress of the trial this branch of the claim was given up, and the claim of the plaintiffs was declared to rest upon the construction to be given to the bills of lading, in which the vessel was merely exempted from 'the dangers of the river,' or 'the dangers of the river and unavoidable accidents.'
The Circuit Court decreed that the owners of the boat were liable upon those bills of lading which contained the exception only of 'the dangers of the river,' being the first five mentioned in the bill, and dismissed the bill as to the relief sought in respect to the bills of lading in which 'the dangers of the river and unavoidable accidents' are excepted, being the sixth, seventh, and eighth, mentioned in the bill. The owners of the boat appealed to this court.
The case was argued by Mr. Ewing for the appellants, and Mr. Geyer for the appellees.
Mr. Justice CAMPBELL delivered the opinion of the court The appellee filed a bill in the Circuit Court against the appellants, the owners of the steamboat Convoy, a vessel formerly employed in the navigation of the Mississippi river, and which, in 1849, was consumed by fire, with a cargo of cotton.
The appellee is an insurance corporation of Memphis, Tennessee, and insured eleven hundred and fifty-two bales of the cotton belonging to this cargo from loss by fire; this insurance was effected upon fifteen distinct parcels, and shipped mostly from Teunessee to a number of consignees in New Orleans. The company adjusted the losses with the assured on their policies, and bring this suit for reimbursement, by enforcing the claims of the shippers against the owners. These answer the bill by a denial of their legal responsibility for the loss. They maintain that fire is one of the perils of the river Mississippi; that all the bills of lading that exempt the carrier from a loss by perils of the river, imply fire as one of those perils; that the variations in the bills of lading, some including 'fire,' and 'unavoidable accidents' as well as fire, are referable to the fact that they are preferred by different shippers, who have different forms for expressing the same legal consequence. That they all understand that a carrier is exempt from a liability for fire on a bill of lading exonerating him from the risks of the river.
It was admitted on the hearing that the boat was consumed, without any negligence or fault of the owners, their agents, or servants. The Circuit Court excused the owners from losses, where the bills of lading contained an exception of fire or unavoidable accidents, but condemned them on the others, to satisfy the demand of the company.