Bushrod Washington

“ There is no instance where the insured can demand as for a total loss that he might not have declined an abandonment, and demand a partial loss. But if the property insured be included within the memorandum, he cannot, under any circumstances, call upon the insurer for a partial loss, and, consequently, he cannot elect to turn it into a total loss. ”

“ Now, this is certainly not the condition of property, which, at the time of the offer to abandon, is in the possession of a recaptor, who has a right to retain it until he is paid his salvage. But, in the present case, the corn never was out of the possession of the agents of the insured, who exercised every act of ownership over it, subject, nevertheless, to the laws and customs of the country to which it was sent, with which the insurer and insured are supposed to have been acquainted at the time they entered into this contract, and to which they impliedly agreed to submit. ”

“ If, in such a case, a deterioration exceeding a moiety in value, be a proper case of technical total loss, it will follow, that, in many cases, the underwriter will indirectly be rendered responsible for partial losses on the memorandum articles. Suppose, in such a case, the damage to the memorandum articles were 40 per cent., and to the other articles 10 per cent., in the whole amounting to half the value of the cargo, the underwriter would be responsible for a technical total loss, and thereby made to bear the whole damage, from which the memorandum meant to exempt him. ”