The Suffolk County/Opinion of the Court

by Samuel Freeman Miller

United States Supreme Court

76 U.S. 651

The Suffolk County

The defence is that the tug attempted suddenly, and without notice, to sheer across the course of the ferryboat, when they were so near that no effort of the persons in charge of the ferryboat could prevent the collision. But we do not think that the defence is made out by the evidence. We cannot go minutely into all the testimony on this point. It is sufficient to say that we think that the fair result of it does not relieve the ferryboat from responsibility.

The counsel for appellants has made a very ingenious argument in favor of two propositions growing out of the allegation of the libel in regard to the manner and the place of the collision.

But as respects the first one, conceding that the pilot of the tug, in his desire to make clear his freedom from all blame, did not state the course of the vessel with accuracy, the statement of the other pilot is liable to the same suspicious influence, and is equally at variance with the allegation of the libel, and with all the other testimony in the case. The libel does not state a rank or sudden sheer, or any change of course which would bring the tug across the bow of the other vessel. It says she was gradually rounding with the channel, which brought her on a course not precisely parallel with that of the ferryboat, but at a slight angle therewith. And as we have already stated, the weight of the testimony supports this allegation, so far as the relative course of the two vessels, and any change in that course is in question.

The other proposition is, that on the production of a map of the locality of the accident, including the channel of the East River, it is shown conclusively that the collision occurred before the vessels reached the point where this curve in the channel required a change in the course of the boats. And it is maintained that as the testimony shows that the collision did not occur at the place alleged, the whole case of libellants must fail; that it was so material to their case to show that the reason for the gradual curve of the boat was the change in the course of channel, that if there was no such change in the channel before the collision, the change in the course of the vessel was without excuse, and was the cause of the collision.

It surely cannot be necessary to say that the libellant is not bound, at the hazard of losing his case, to state with perfect accuracy, within two or three hundred feet, the point of the collision or curve of the channel, except so far as they may be material to the question of who was in fault. Now the case here requires of the claimants to show that by a sudden and unexpected change in the course of the tugboat she was brought to directly across the course of the ferryboat that the latter could not avoid the collision. The relative positions of the boats to each other and their relative courses were correctly stated in the libel, and such change in the course of the tugboat as was made, was correctly stated. We cannot see that it was material whether this slight and gradual change was made a little before arriving at the corresponding curve in the channel or not, nor whether the collision occurred at that precise point of the river or a little before it was reached.

We concur with the decree rendered in favor of libellants, both by the District Court and the Circuit Court, and it is accordingly

AFFIRMED.

Notes