Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/505

 TEK ENBIQUE. 493 �had been in some measare protected by the forecastlo deck, were cast over. When the storin abated, on the night of the 24th, none of the cattle were left on board. �The libellant claims that the cattle were thrown overboard, net because they were dead or dying, and therefore unfit for further transportation, as is alleged by the respondent, but because it was necessary to jettison them to save the vessel and the rest of her cargo from impending danger. The libel- lant further claims that the acceptance of the bill of lading by his agent, who was appointed simply to attend to putting the cattle on board, was without authority and not binding upon him, and that the live-freight eontract, and not the bill of lading, is to determine hik rights; and further; that in any event the exception in the bill of lading for loEle from the cattle being jettisoned is void as against public polioy. �Counsel for libellant have strenuously contended that the paper called a "live-stOck freight eontract" is to be treated as a charter-party for the use of the deck of the steamer, and that being a charter-party the rights of the parties to it are not %6 be affected by the terins of the bill of ' lading. ' To this I cannot agree. The cattle were to be brought from' Chicago to Baltimore for shipment, and as keeping them there would be attended with expense,''the shipperrequired to knoW be- fore they left Chicago that the steamer would be ready to take them, the number she would take, the amount of freight, and the arrangements for their care and subsistence. These matters are very carefully set out in the eontract, but it con- tains none of the exceptions for the protection of the ship- owner usually to be f ound in charter-parties and bills of lad- ing; and I cannot think it was intended to supersede the usual bill of lading. If it did, the ship-owner would, in effect, have become insurers of the safe delivery of the cattle, a resuit never contemplated by either party. The stipulations of the bill of lading do not contradict the eontract, but are supplementary to it. It is shown that the libellant had made several shipments of cattle from Baltimore to Liverpool by steamers of this same Une after making similar contracts with the same agents, and that in every instance precisely ��� �