Friday, the 9th day of December, 1881, In the matter in which Messra. Orange, Hxap & Ca, Merchants of Chefooy are plaintiff; and the master and owners of the Rritish ne, Chefoo (as represented by their Agents Mom Cxaseaan & Hages, Merchants, also of Chefoo) are defendants, This case is brought to recover Th 281.18 balance of claim against the Chefoo on account of dumngo by oil dono to sundry cotton goods shipped on board the Chefoo, at Shanghai. consigned to for surrey on anid. ycods rendered neces-plaintiffs at this port, and Tls. 20 00 fees
sary by that damage.
Also to recover Tis, 3.50 for chafage to certain bales as well as Tis 1,90 for short delivery of ove bundle of cotton yarn, The two later claims enn be very quickly disposed of. The But of Lading produced in Court is a perfectly clear one, no mew ion of any chafige whatever at the time of shipniont being made on it. The Court therefure exn to no other conclusion but that the ship is liable for such chafago as has been proved to have been present when the goods arrived here and which has been valued at Ts, 3.50.
As for the item Ts. 1 must also be allowed. The bale i on receiv-t in Shanghai was either broken 80 a8 to allow vf the abstraction of the bundle of yarn or it was in zood condition, and the clean Bill of Lading tovtifies to its being in the latter atate, The defendant's that the bale was marke characters, thut one bundle was missing, and they in a Jetter produced in Court assert that the bundle was not len, but was there, whereas the plaintiffs never got it, Had bale been received in a damaged condition the steamer is responsible for the negligence of its agents in not stating the fact on the Bill of Luding, Hence this claim must be allowed. Nor is there much difficulty as rogarde the claims for oil damage und survey fees. There can be no doubt aft the evidence produced that the goods we damaged by oil and that the suid damage was caused on board the a.s, Chefoo.
Now it is laid down, that care must be taken by the master (unless by usage or agreement this business is to be performed, by persons hired by the merchant) 80 to afew nnd arrange the different articles of which the exrgo consists that they may not be injured by exch other or by the motion or leakage of the ship.
Moreover among consequential damages must be placed the dumaye done to goods by oil, by tar, and by bilge water, no one of which ought to have had any proximity to chy goods.
Te is evident the different articles on board the 8.8. Chefoo cannot have been 20 arranged or the oil ought not to have got near the cotton goods. Damngo of the kind in question may happen from want of proper stowage and dunnage, but it may also happen from sea perils, and this latter point disposes of the plex preferred that the damage referred to was the consequence of bad weather.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.