China Merchants and A. P. C. Boats—Judgement in Supreme Court—Both Ships at Fault In H. M. Supreme Court on Saturday, His Honour Judge Skinner Turner gave his decision in an action arising out of a collision in the Yangtze and in which plaintiffs were the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company and defendants the Asiatic Petroleum Ca. (North China), Ld. Captain Pote Hunt sat with his Lordship as Assessor.
Mr. R. N. Macleod appeared for the plaintiffs, with Mr. Brockman, and Mr. F. L. Hartopp for defendants.
His Lordship gave judgement as follows:—This ease was tried under the Admiralty jurisdiction of this Court and the parties agreed to take no exception to the whole matter being determined by me, in accordance with the provisions of the Order in Council of 1907.
As to the application of the Sea Regulations in this part of the Yangtze, it is enough to say that each party relies upon breaches of them by the other, and I would also quote the words of the learned Judge of this Court in what is known as the Hankow collision case (the Vu Sang): "The rules for navigating the Yangtze, which the Court takes notice of as part of the law of China, under the International Rules for preventing collisions at Sea (otherwise known as the Sea Regulations) are applicable in this part of the Yangtze to steamers." Both sides are, therefore, bound by them. Al suggestion has been made that the plaintiff's Preliminary Act is not sufficient in that it does not accurately indicate the place of collision. No authority has been quoted to me in support of that suggestion, and it seems to me to have no foundation. It seems to me that the example I see in Williams & Bruce's book is enough to show that the place need not be more definitely set out than is done by the plaintiffs in this case.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.