Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/301

 GRBGOBI V. OBBALL. 2S7' �Gbegory and others ». Obeall au 3 others. �{Circuit Court,, P. MassacAuseth. June 16, 1881.) �1. SaITAOB — BxTEAOEDrNAIlY REFAITS — CONTRIBUTION., �Where such a casualty happens to a vessel as requires salvage services to be rendered and extraordinary repairs to be made, owners of the goods on board, if called uponto dd so, must contribute to the expense thereby incurred, pro- vjded such casualty was due in no way to. the previous negligence of the master. ' �2. EtiDENCE— BUKDHIN OP PkoOP., „ ' . . �The burden of making out negligence is on such owners. �In Equity, -m ■ �G. F. e T. H. Evsaell, toi comTgi&in&nis. �John G. Dadge dt. Sons, for defendants. : , i �LowBLL, C. J. This bill is brought by the owners of the threflf. masted schooner Cephas Stairet, against the shippers of apartof thet cargo, for a contribution to general average. On the twenty-gixthof; Jvdie, 1879, the schooner was lying at New Orleans, ready for sea, having taken on boardthe timber belonging to the defendapts^ which was stowed in the hold, and twenty baies of compressed rags, the property of other consignees, stowed between decks. The crew had been sbipped, but only the mate, boatswain, and cook had corne on board. The master spent the night on shore. When he left the ship the mate was on shore, but was expected to return soon. The boat- swain and cook usually slept on deck, on top of the forward house. He gave general directions to them to keep a sharp lookout, not mean- ing that they should keep watch, and none Tf^as kept, so far as he knows. The mate, I suppose, was to sleep in the.cabin. During the night a fire broke out on board the ship, of which the master was first informed by the mate. The charges and expenses for which contribution is asked, are for salvage paid for steamers, or floating fire-engines, used in putting out the fire, and for extraordinary repairs and supplies, rendered necessary by damage suffered in the course of putting out the fiames. �The defendants allege that the loss was caused in whole or in part by the negligence of the master. If this is made out, the ship-owners must bear the whole, because it is only when the carrier bas been involved in a peril by a superior force, or by misfortune, without his own fault, that he can throw a part of the burden of relieving the property imperiled upon those persons whose goods he was bound to carry and protect with diligence and reasonable skill, as in the instance commonly put in the books of the jettison of goods which ��� �