The Maggie Hammond

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for Maryland, the facts of the case, so far as they presented questions which were passed on by the judgment of the court having been these:

On the 23d of August, 1866, the Maggie Hammond, a British vessel, being then at Androssan, Scotland, and owned by a British subject domiciled in Nova Scotia, took on board for Morland & Co., British subjects also, residents of Montreal, Canada, a cargo of iron, to be transported from Androssan to Montreal. The bill of lading was in the usual form. The vessel, in consequence of stress of weather, which damaged her considerably, put back, after her voyage had been half accomplished, and reaching Milford Haven, on the coast of Wales, anchored there, September 18th. Surveys were held on the 18th and 25th, the result of which was that the ship being found unseaworthy, was ordered to Cardiff, about a hundred and fifty miles further along the coast, for repairs, there being no facilities for landing and storing the cargo at Milford. On the 9th October the master made formal protest at Cardiff, stating that it had been ascertained by surveys that the vessel could not be repaired in time to complete her voyage before the close of the season; navigation in the St. Lawrence being impeded by ice at a comparatively early time in the winter. The vessel was repaired, and on the 3d of November the surveyors certified that she was in a condition to proceed on her voyage. The average voyage from ports of Great Britain to Montreal is from thirty-five to forty days. The navigation of the St. Lawrence to Montreal, closed as it appeared, in this year, 1866, on the 15th December, and was open in the spring of 1867, on the 22d April. Though, of course, the navigation was not open in all years alike, and though there was some conflict of testimony, the weight of it went to show that it had not usually, in previous years, closed earlier than this. The first vessel from sea in the spring of 1867 arrived 4th May. The agents of Morland & Co., asserting, on the vessel's putting back and returning, that there was no weather or distress which ought to have compelled her to give up the voyage, and that she could even now resume the voyage, and dispute arising on these points, a compromise was attempted. While, however, negotiations were going on, the vessel loaded and sailed for Baltimore with another cargo on the 21st November, leaving the cargo of Morland & Co. in store at Cardiff. The owners of the Maggie Hammond anticipated, as they alleged, when their vessel sailed, that she would be able to complete the voyage to Baltimore and be back at Cardiff in time for the spring navigation, then to take the iron aboard and sail to Montreal. But tempestuous weather made the voyage to Baltimore one of eighty-seven days. The vessel arrived there only on the 17th February, and was chartered back, with an expectation by her owners that she would arrive at Cardiff from the 15th to the 20th of April. This was nearly a month after vessels for Montreal usually leave the English ports. The agents of Morland & Co. accordingly made arrangements with another vessel and forwarded the iron on her. This vessel sailed May 29th, and reached Montreal July 22d.

While the Maggie Hammond was at Baltimore, Morland & Co. libelled her for breach of her contract with them.

The District Court, considering that the repairs were made in time to have allowed the Maggie Hammond to get off in the autumn, and that if they were not the master ought to have foreseen that they would not be, and have sent the cargo on by another ship, decreed in favor of the libellants; holding the ship responsible for the difference between the value of the iron in Montreal on December 15th, 1866, when, as the court considered, it ought to have arrived, and its value in July, 1867, when it did arrive, with interest, &c. The Circuit Court affirmed the decree. The case being here, the questions argued and in issue were these:

I. One of jurisdiction; a point not raised in the pleadings nor by any one below, but suggested here by Messrs. Brune and Browne, for the appellants, and ordered by the court, through Mr. Justice Clifford, to be argued on these three questions: