Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/399

 392 FEDERAL REPORÏER. �disability. The captain of the Plainmeller insisted on his own terms, and made the agreement to them a condition of rendering any assistance. I think he took advantage of the Eituatiou of Captain Koberts to exact from his circumstances of present distress an exorbitant and grossly excessive amount. The master of the Adirondack was inexperienced. This was his first voyage as master. He knew little or nothing of machinery, and seems not entirely to have relipd on what his engineer told him as to their ability to repair and go on under steam. His judgment was overborne, by the pressure of the circumstances in which he was placed, to that degree which fully justifies a court of admiralty in relie ving owners of his Bhip from the inequitable bargain into which he improvidently entered. �It is not because the bargain proves to be a hard one that the courts of admiralty set aside such a stipulation. It is because it is obviously unjust, and the parties do not deal on equal terms. The apprehension expressed by the learned counsel for the libellant, that the setting aside of such con- tracts will tend to discourage the rendering of salvage serv- ices, is unf ounded so long as the courts award, as they endeavor to do in every case, such as a sum as will be not only a quan- tum meruit for the time and labor employed in the service, but a reliable reward for the assistance reudered and the per- ils voluntarily incurred. If the amount agreed upon exceeds Eomewhat the accustomed measure of this liberal reward, it will not be disturbed, if deliberately and understandingly assented to, without the judgment of the promising party being overborne by the distress in which be is placed; but where the amount agreed upon is more than double, or, as in this case, nearly treble, that measure of liberal reward, the upholding of the contract.would invite rapacity, and tend to prevent the rendering, upon just andproper terms, of salvage service under circumstances in which it is for the interests of commerce that it should be oiïered and not refused. �If it were understood that double salvage, if insisted on and agreed to, must be paid, except in case of actual fraud, some masters to whom assistance is offered would refuse to agree, ����