Morning Light (69 U.S. 550)

APPEAL from the decree in admiralty of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

About the 6th of August, 1855, the brigs Jerry Fowler and Morning Light, in a dark and rainy night, were pursuing a voyage off the coast of Rhode Island through Buzzard's Bay and Martha's Vineyard, eastward, with the wind from the northeast, the Jerry Fowler being the head vessel and the Morning Light in her rear, both vessels running on their starboard tacks on about a common course. At 4 o'clock in the morning of that day a collision occurred between them, the stem or bows of the Morning Light breaking through the starboard side of the Jerry Fowler near her main rigging, so that the latter vessel, with her cargo, was, by the collision, sunk, and became a total loss.

The Alliance and other insurance companies, who had connectedly underwritten upon the Jerry Fowler in stated proportions, paid the amount of their policies, and unitedly filed their libel in the District Court for the Southern District of New York (Betts, J.), to recover from the Morning Light the sums so paid. The answer set up inevitable accident as a defence.