The Granite State

Supreme Court of the United States
The Granite State, 70 U.S. 310 (1866)
18 L. Ed. 179; 3 Wall. 310; 1865 U.S. LEXIS 713

The Granite State

Opinion

Mr. Justice GRIER

delivered the opinion of the court.

It is not controverted, that the barge, which was fastened to the end of the pier, wras in a place she was entitled to occupy ; that she was not required to have a light suspended during the night time, as vessels anchored in the channel are required; nor to have a watch kept on board to warn off steamboats using the channel of the river. She was not on any track the steamer was.required to take; and, being incapable of motion, cannot be justly charged with any participation or fault in causing the collision.

As in the case of The Louisiana, recently decided, * there *314 was no unusual convulsion of the elements or sudden hurricane which nautical men could not anticipate; no vis major, causing a collision which a proper display of nautical skill might not have prevented.

Under such circumstances we are not called upon to inquire wherein the steamboat was not managed with proper nautical skill; whether the bright light which the steamboat had, or ought to have had, was not sufficient to warn her in time of her proximity to the pier if careful watch had been kept; whether she should not have backed her engine instead of rushing forward; whether she should have ported or stai’boarded her helm. All these inquiries are superfluous where the collision was caused by a vessel having the power to move or stop at pleásure in a channel of sufficient breadth, without any superior force compelling her to the place of collision. The fact that in these circumstances the steamboat did collide with the barge is conclusive evidence that she was not properly managed, and that she should be condemned to pay the damages caused by the collision.

There seems to have been some controversy in the District Court as to the measure of damages. No less than three different repoi’ts were made by the master on the subject. The parties have no right to complain of the instructions or opinions delivered by the court. .There cannot be an established market value for barges, boats, and other articles of that description, as in cases of grain, cotton, or stock. The value of such a boat depends upon the accidents of its form, age, and materials; and as these differ in each individual there could be no established market value. A person may make considerable profits by the use of an-old hulk of little value in the market for vessels. His loss cannot be measured by the ratio of her profits, as he might supply himself with another at a much cheaper rate. But when the injured vessel is not a total loss, and is capable of being repaired and restored to her original situation, the cost necessary to such repair cannot be said to be an incorrect rule of damages.

We do not feel called upon to decide between the opinions of witnesses who have given their guesses on the subject of *315 the value of this rotten hull; and we see no reason to doubt the correctness of the decision of the district judge on the subject.

The judgment of the Circuit Court must be therefore reversed, and the judgment of the District Court affirmed with costs.

Decree accordingly.

*

Supra, p. 164.

Reference

Cited By
73 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. Where tbe question of fault in a collision lies, on the one hand, between a boat fast at a wharf, out of the track of other vessels, and moored, in all respects of place and signals, or want of them, according to the port regulations of the place, and, on the other, a steamer navigating a channel of sufficient width for her to move and stop at pleasure, the fault, under almost any circumstances, where there is no unusual action of the elements or other superior force driving her to the place-of collision, will be held to be with the steamer. Hence a steamer which, in going in the dark from a broad channel into her dock, runs — though in an effort to avoid other steamers coming out of their docks — against a barge moored at a wharf according to the port regulations, is responsible for the collision. Nor is it an excuse that the barge was without masts, lay low, and owing to her color was not visible in the dark till you were close by her; nor, if the port regulations of the place do not require them from vessels moored at wharves, that she was without both light and watch. * 2. The sum which it will take to repair her is not an incorrect rule of damage, in case of injury from collision to an old barge of a peculiar structure and capacities of usefulness, and from these causes not having any established market value in the particular port where she is injured.