Stanley Matthews

“ It seems to us it is the meaning of the statute that the owner shall receive no pecuniary benefit from his interest in the vessel doing the wrong which shall not inure to the compensation of him who has suffered the loss which it has caused. ”

“ The insurance, which in case of damage or loss repairs and restores the vessel, or stands in its place, and is its produce and earning, being the purchase money paid for it by virtue of the contract which assumes the risks insured against, is strictly an accessory of the ship insured, as much so as the freight which she earns ”

“ The insurance money is the interest of the owner in the ship reduced to money, and therefore most accurately measures its value; for, in cases of total loss, actual or constructive, all interest of the owner, even though it be a mere spes recuperandi, on payment of the insurance money, passes by operation of law to the insurer. ”

“ It means, we are constrained to believe, and naturally suggests, not merely the naked title of the owner to the physical materials which constitute the ship, or its wreck, or its remnants, but every interest in, attached to, or growing out of it, capable of pecuniary valuation and measurement, so as to include every right of action accruing to its owner, by contract or by operation of law, growing out of its ownership, or any damage or loss previously occasioned to it by others ”

“ In all cases the owner must surrender the vessel and its pending freight, or their value; whereas, in many-such as suits for pilotage and for damage by collision-no process in rem against freight is given by the fourteenth and fifteenth rules in admiralty, such as is authorized by the twelfth and thirteenth in suits by material-men and for mariners' wages. So that the statute is not to be treated as if it confined the recovery of the party suffering loss strictly to what he might obtain by a proceeding in rem against the vessel alone. ”

“ And when the liability is not only a lien on the vessel, but a claim against the owner personally, if satisfaction is not secured by process in rem, the deficiency may be made good by proceedings in personam. ”

“ The Kate Dyer was sunk immediately, and the steam-ship Scotland sunk soon after, from the effects of the collision, and was a total loss, a portion of the wreck being saved. It was held on the former hearing that the respondents were entitled to the benefits of the statute limiting their liability. The decree for the several libelants amounts in the aggregate to $255,047.70. ”

“ It is also found as a fact that when the collision occurred the steam-boat was insured against fire, but not against marine disaster, and of the insurance money the appellees have recovered and received from the underwriters the sum of $49,283.07.
It thus appears that in one case the owners of a vessel, whose fault caused a loss to others of more than $250,000, escape all liability over $5,000, having received more insurance than necessary to pay the whole amount of the loss ”

“ There was, in fact, a controversy among writers on commercial and maritime law, both in France and Germany on the point. The opinion of Pardessus coincided with that of Valin, while Emerigon, who was followed by Boulay-Paty and others, maintained the opposite opinion. ”