"Extremely Moderate":
Judgement for Plaintiffs for Tls. 49,298
His Honour Judge Grain gave judgement at H. M. Supreme Court last Friday in the claim by the Shanghai Tug & Lighter Ca. against the Ocean Steamship Ca., Ld., in connexion with the salvage of the str.
Glaucus. The amount claimed was Tls. 55,000 and his Honour found that, in the circumstances, this was an extremely moderato sum to ask for. Deducting Ts. 5,702, which he apportioned as expenses in connexion with salving the Cordillere, he awarded plaintiffs Tls. 49,298, costs to follow the event.
Mr, Duncan MeNeill appeared ior plaintiffs and Mr. R. N. Macleod for defendants.
The full judgement is as follows:
The plaintiff company is a com-puny formed for the purpose of tewing and lightering ships and also for the purpose of carrying un the business of salvors. gree of danger to the salving fleet, the risk to either the Glaucus or the tugs from the impending or reported as impending typhoons, and generally the state of the weather with reference to peril and msk. On September 7, the plaintiff company sent in to ithe agents of the str. Glaucus their 24°. {account of Tis, 55,000 for the salvage of the vessel. They received a reply on September 10, Suggesting that the account should [only be for towage and lighterage: implying that salving operations had not been performed. I am not quite sure whether they have in the course of the hearing of the case adhered to that idea, but the Main question undoubtedly for me to decide is whether the amount asked for, namely Tls. 55,000, for the operations performed by the Shanghai Tug Ca. is justified by the work earned out by them.
On August 22, 1921, at some early hour in the morning, the plaintiff company were informed by the agents of the owners of the str. Glaucus that she was ashore on the Tungsha Spit, and the plaintiff company were instructed to render assistance. Accordingly somewhere about 6 a.m. on that day certain tugs went out to the assistance of the Glaucus. 'The plaintiffs allege that the Glaucus was then in danger and continued in danger until she was towed off by the plaintiffs' tugs. They further allego that salvage was carried out with danger or apprehension of danger to their own craft, during the whole period, by reason of impending typhoons, the high seas and the danger to their craft of the operations.
The fleet of the Tug and Lighter Ca, employed consisted of tugs St. Dominic, Victoria, Alexandra, Vulcan. Fublee and steam launch Hanching and six lighters, the total value of which is Tis, 990,000, the crews employed amounting' to 109 men, plus 39 men employed ea lighters and tugs extra to the usual crews.
The operations of towing the Glaucus began on August 22 and concluded on September 1, at 10.55 p.m. when the Glaucus was towed off the bank into deep water by the St. Dominic, Alexandra and Victoria towing tandem.
A very considerable part of the facts alleged by the plaintiffs are admitted or accepted.
Sanyacs or Towace.
Beyond certain details of the operations which are not admitted. the chief points in the alleged facts, put forward by the plaintiffs, regarding the salvage, which are controverted by the defendants, ave:—the degree of danger, if any, to the Glaucus, the de-
Tae CRITERION oF Sauvace.
To deal at once with the point whether this was salvage or merely towage: To make it a case of salvage there must be some danger proved by the salvors.
Sir Samuel Evans. The Calyx 27 T.L.R. (Q. B. & P.) 1910-1911, 166.
"There had to be an element of real and sensible danger or a reasonable ap. prehension of i, but if there was an entire absence of this element then the claim of the salvors would fail. The onus of proving salvage service resis upon those who allege them."
It is impossible to say, in this case, that there was an entire absence of danger or apprehension of danger in the course of the operations. T therefore say at once that I am of opinion that the services rendered were salvage services.
In deciding on the remuneration to be given in cases of salvage there are many points to be considered. 1. Labour expended by salvors. z. dkill shown by them. 3. Value of property salved. 4. Danger to which ship and property are exposed. 5. Risk of danger incurred by salvors, And a number of other matters which as Vaughan Williams L.J. (The Port Hunter L.R. [1910] P.D. C.A. 343) states he is not going to "be rash enough to try and catalogue."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.