Rule as to the admission of further proof by the Captors [IO Moo. P.C. 197]. By the law of Prize, the evidence, whether to acquit or condemn the ship, must, iri the first instance, come from the ship’s papers and the primary depositions of the master and crew : aud the captors are not, except under circumstances of suspicion arising from the primary evidence, entitled to adduce any intrinsic evidence in opposition.
In a case where no suspicion of an intention to break a blockade appeared from the ship’s papers, or the primary depositions, the Judicial Committee (affirming the interlocutory decree of the Admiralty Court) refused the admission of further proof by the captors to contradict the depositions with respect to the place of capture.
The principle laid down in the Ostee (9 Moore’s P.C. Cases, l57), that a clairnant upon restitution of the ship is entitled to costs and damages from the Captors, only in circumstances where the ship was in no fault, and was not by any act of her own, voluntarily or involuntarily, open to any fair ground of suspicion, approved.
Citations:
[1856] EngR 764, (1856) 10 Moo PC 491, (1856) 14 ER 577
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Transport
Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.291519
