Robert H. Jackson

“ But claimants contend that because their contracts of affreightment were signed 'for master' they became under maritime law ship's contracts, independently of any owners' contracts, and that the ship itself stands bound to the cargo though the owner may be freed. It seems unnecessary to examine the validity of the claim that apart from the statute claimants under the circumstances would have a lien on the vessel, or to review the historical development of the fiction that the ship for some purposes is treated as a jural personality apart from that of its owner. ”

“ While it does not often come to the surface of the record in admiralty proceeidngs, we are not unaware that in commercial practice the shipper who buys carriage from the shipowner usually buys fire protection from an insurance company, thus obtaining in two contracts what once might have been embodied in one. The purpose of the statute to relieve carriage rates of the insurance burden would be largely defeated if we were to adopt an interpretation which would enable cargo claimants and their subrogees to shift to the ship the risk of which Congress relieved the owner. ”

“ It is true that the changes are most radical from the common law upon the subject; but they are rendered necessary first, from the fact that the English common law system really never had an application to this country, and second, that the English Government has changed the law, which is a very strong and established reason why we should place our commercial marine upon an equal footing with hers. ”

“ If we assume that the circumstances are appropriate otherwise for such a lien as claimants assert, it only brings us to the question whether the Fire Statute cuts across it as well as other doctrines of liability and extinguishes claims against the vessel as well as against the owner. ”