Melville Fuller

Name: The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court
Author: Melville Fuller

Summary

“The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court”, is a work by Melville Fuller. It explores elements such as warranty, shipowner and seaworthiness.

Quotes from The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court (Melville Fuller)

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ It is well and firmly established that in every marine policy the assured comes under an implied warranty of seaworthiness to his assurer, and, if we were to hold that he has not the benefit of a similar implication in a contract which he makes with a shipowner for the carriage of his goods, the consequence would be that he would lose that complete indemnity against risk and loss, which it is the object and purpose to give him by the two contracts taken together. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ This early case is cited by Chancellor Kent, who affirms the doctrine in these words: 'The ship must be fit and competent for the sort of cargo and the particular service in which she is engaged. If there should be a latent defect in the vessel, unknown to the owner and not discoverable upon examination, yet the better opinion is that the owner must answer for the damage caused by the defect. It is an implied warranty in the contract, that the ship be sound for the voyage, and the owner, like a common carrier, is an insurer against everything but the excepted perils.' 3 Kent, Comm. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ The proposition that the warranty of seaworthiness exists by implication in all contracts for sea carriage we do not understand to be denied; but it is insisted that the warranty is not absolute, and does not cover latent defects not ordinarily susceptible of detection. If this were so, the obligation resting on the shipowner would be, not that the ship should be fit, but that he had honestly done his best to make her so. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ In our opinion, the shipowner's undertaking is not merely that he will do and has done his best to make the ship fit, but that the ship is really fit to undergo the perils of the sea and other incidental risks to which she must be exposed in the course of the voyage; and, this being so, that undertaking is not discharged because the want of fitness is the result of latent defects. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ There was no exception in this bill of lading which in express words exempted the shipowner from furnishing a seaworthy vessel at the commencement of the voyage. As the exceptions were introduced by the shipowners themselves in their own favor, they are to be construed most strongly gainst them, and we perceive no reason why the obligation to furnish a seaworthy vessel should be held to have been contracted away by implication. Their meaning ought not to be extended to give the shipowner a protection, which, if intended, should have been expressed in clear terms. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ There a passenger sought to charge a common carrier for an injury occasioned by the breaking of an axle by reason of a hidden flaw; and the court of exchequer chamber held that a contract made by a general carrier of passengers for hire with a passenger is to take due care (including in that term the use of skill and foresight) to carry the passenger safely, and is not a warranty that the carriage in which he travels shall be free from all defects likely to cause peril, although those defects were such that no skill, care, or foresight could have detected their existence. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Caledonia — Opinion of the Court

“ If the goods are lost by reason of any defect in the vessel, whether latent or visible, known or unknown, the owner is answerable to the freighter, upon the principle that he tacitly contracts that his vessel shall be fit for the use for which he thus employs her. ”

Melville Fuller

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