Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/374

 360 - FEDERAL REPORTER. �plaintiff to place her in the defendant's dock. Instructions from the plaintif were "to moor her in the river;" but after the alleged sale to William she was placed in the dock, by his orders, to be repaired as his property and at his expense. �Under the authority of Small v. Bohinson, 69 Me. 427, the defend- ant, as against the plaintiff, never acquired any lien on the vessel for dockage or repairs. If such lien ever existed, he waived it by purchasing the vessel from William by bill of sale, with covenants of warranty of title, and afterwards taking possession of her, strip- ping and repairing her, claiming an absolute ownership thereto, and in all respects dealing with her as his own property. That such a claim is a waiver of any previous lien was ruled in 2 Blackf. 465, and this decision is sustained by Jacobs v. Latour, 5 Bing. 130. �Judgment for plaintiff. ���The Frank G. Fowt.er. �{District O'jurt, S. D. New York. February4, 1881.) �DAMAfeE TO Tow — Navigating Channel op Haeboe — Negligence — Compass — Releasb — Insuebbs — Interbsi of Insukkd. �Where the 8team-tug F. G. F., while atterapting to get out of Stasniorcl har- bor on her way to Norwalk, having in tow a barge with lumber, ran lier on Forked reef, at the mouth of the harbor, in the morning of Novenibur 25th, therebybreaking through her bottom and causing herto iill, and the tug at the time ivas outside and east of the channel, and heading S. by E. instead of S. % W., her true course, and the libellants, an insurance company, having paid for the repairs, brought suit, and the claimants contended that the accident was due to a snow-storm, which obscured the view of the landmarks, — �Hdd, on the evidence, that the fact of the tug getting so far out of the chan- nel in so short a distance was not due to the obscuring of the lights by the storm as the primary cause, but to the pilot not keeping a good lookout, and pro- ceeding cautiously, with the aid of a good compass ; that the compass was not used as claimed by the pilot ; that the accident waa wholly due to the fault of the tug, and the libellants were entitled to recover. �Also Md, that the allegation of the claimants as to the libellant's agreement to release the tug upon condition that she should unload the cargo, render cer- tain assistance to the wrecking steamer, etc., was grossly improbable, under the circurastances shown to exist at the time, and that the authority of the agent of the underwriters to make the agreement was not proven. �Held, further, that the libellants having paid the loss, and thus being entitled to the damages, could maintain a suit in admiralty, without proof of abandon- ment or assignment by the asaured ; that the answer, having admitted that the libellants were the underwriters on the hull, did not fairly raise the issue as to the right of the assured, who had hired the barge, to insure for the owners. �In Admiralty. ��� �