The plaintiff, the owner of a ship, effected a policy on freight from a British port in North America to Liverpool. The ship sailed with a cargo of timber between the 1st of September and the 1st of May. The master, without the knowledge or privity of his owner, stowed a portion of the cargo on deck, and sailed without any certificate from a clearing officer that the whole cargo was below deck, contrary to 16 and 17 Vict. c. 107, ss. 170, 171, and 172. On a loss by perils insured against:
Held: That although the master had general authority from his owner to stow the cargo, no authority could be implied to load it so as to violate the statute, neither was it an act of the master which the owner must be presumed to have assented to; that the fact of the ship having sailed without the certificate did not render her unseaworthy at the commencement ,of her voyage so as to prevent the policy attaching, and, consequently, that the plaintiff was not precluded from recovering against the underwriter.
[1865] EngR 755, (1865) 6 B and S 208, (1865) 122 ER 1173, (1865-1866) LR 1 QB 162, [1865] UKLawRpKQB 35
Commonlii, Commonlii
England and Wales
Updated: 07 August 2021; Ref: scu.281667