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MARINE LAW. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IN BILLS OF LAD- ING. U. Distvict Court, NS. Deof New York. Benjamin Odio vs. the steamship Hadji. Sidney Chubb tor the libellant; Butler, Still- man & Hubbard for claimants. Brown, J.—Under a decree of this court adjudging the libellant entitled to damages for injuries to fourteen cases of goods ship- ped on the Hadji from New York to St. Thomas, W. 1, for negligence in the con- struction or repair of her ballast tanks, (16 Fed. Rep, 861,) the damages have been ad- justed by the Commissioner upon the basis of 61g cents per yard as the market value of the goods at St. ‘Thomas, if uninjured, Exceptiong have been filed to this finding grounded upon the provisions of the bill of lading, which besides undertaking to exempt the ship from losses through negligence, contained a elauge in these words: ‘In case of damage, loss, or non-delivery, the ship- owners are not to be liable for more than the invoice value of the goods.”? The in- voice value was 5 cents per yard, instead of 64. ‘The latter price has been allowed by way of damages, on the ground that where the injuries were caused by the fault or negligence of the vessel or her owners, any limitation upon the recovery of full damages is invalid. The case of the Hindoo, which is referred to us authority for this view, does not seem to meet the present case. ‘he limitation of liability was there fixed-in the printed form of the bill of lading at £100; the value of the goods shipped was very much greater than that, and the limitation was a general one, applicable to the shipments of all per- sons, and having no reference either to the particular goods shipped or to their cost or value. It was manifestly as arbitrary and as unreasonable as a general exemption from all liability would have been and justly held, therefore, to be within the principles laid down in Railroad Company vs. Lockwood (17 Wall, 357,) and in Bank of Kentucky vs. Adams Ex. Co. (93 U.S. 174.) ‘Those cases, however, expressly recognize the lawfulness ot stipulations for limitation of liability which are just and reasonable; and it is tor the court to determine whether any particu- lar limitations is justand reasonable and consistent with the right of community and sound policy. In the case of Express Co. ve. Caldwell (21 Wall. 264) Strong, J., says (p. 266:) “It is undoubtedly true that special contracts with their employers limiting their liability are recognized as valid, if in the judgment of the courts they are just and reasonable, if they are not in conflict with sound legal policy * * * and even when such a stimula- tion has been obtained the court must be able to see that it is not tnreasonable.’”’ Again he says, (p. 267:) ‘It is now the settled law that the responsibility of a com- mon carrier may be limited by an express agreement made with his employer at the time of his accepting goods for trangporta- tiou, provided the limitation be such as the law can vecognize as reasonable and not in- consistent wish sound public policy.” S In several decisions of the Federal courts in this and other circuits, the stipulations of express companies limiting their responsi- bility to « tlxed sum, unless a larger value of the goods was disclosed having been held to be rensonable and sustained as valid, as in effect fixing by agreement the value of the goods. (Hopkins vs. Westcott 6, Blatch, 64; Am. Ex. Co., 1 Fed. Rep. 382; Mather vs, Do, 2 Fed. Rep. 49.) So various receipts, have long been held competent, in case of loss or damage, to change the burden of proof trom the carrier and throw it upon the shipper to enable the latter to recover (Clark vs. Bramwell 12. How. 272; Transp. Co. vs. Downer 11, Wall. 129; Wertheimer vs. Penn. R. R. Co. 1 Fed. Rep. 232,) and in the case of Express Co. vs. Caldwell 2 Wall. 264, above referred to, a stipulation requiring all claims for;damage or loss to be made within ninety days was upheld as a ieasonable limitation Lewis vs. Great Western, etc., 5 Huris, & N. 867. In stipulating, as in this bill of lading, that in case of loss or damage the lability of the shipowners should not extend beyond the invoice value of the goods, the parties have in effect agreed upon a limitation of the value of the goods for the purpese of adjusting any | logs that might arise; they ha THE MARINE RECORD. provided a rule of damages for themselves, to the effect that the owner should be indemnified tor the actual cost of his goods, but should rot claim any expected profits in a foreign mar- ket. ‘here appears to me to be nothing so unreasonable or impolitie in this stipulation, or rule of damages, as to warrant the court in holding it void. It prinelple it falls with- in the cases above cited, of reasonable regu- lations which it is competent for the parties tomake. In bas nothing analagous, as it seems to me, to those stipulations which pro- vide tor a total exemption of w carrier from exemption of a carrier from liability for his own negligence, which the Supreme Court, in Railroad Co. vs, Lockwood, and in other cases, have condemned. The foundation of the rule in the cases last referred to is said by Strong, J., to be, (93 U.S. 183,) “that it tends to the greater security of consignors who always deal with such carriers ata disadvantage; it tends to induce greater care and waichfulness in those to whom an owner intrusts his goods, and by whom alone the needful care can be exercised; any con- tract that withdraws a motive for such care, or that makes a failure to bestow upon the duty assumed extreme vigilance and caution more probable, takes away the security of the consignors, and makes common carriage more unreliable.” Ina stipulation which subjects the carrier to liability for all actual cost or outlay exempts him from expected profits in a foreign market, there is no lack of inducement in the carrier to the utmost care and diligence; nor can the additional liability for expected profits, through re- covery of the full value in a foreign market ‘be supposed to supply any substantial in- crease of motive to the full pertormance ot a earrier’s duty. ‘Theve are, moreover, special reasons of con- venience and policy why this measure of damages may well be adopted, between the parties. In case of loss or injury, it avoids controversy as to the market value in foreign and distant countries, often a matier some- what difficult to ascertain, and uncertain and unsatisfactory on the proofs. ‘The invoice value, as the limit of liability, renders the ascertainment and adjustment of the damage comparatively easy, and tends. materially to check the litigious | prosecution of ex- aggerated claims of damage which this court has been often called on to rebuke. Where such a stipulation is deliberately entered into, as evidenced by the bill of lad- ing and the shipment of good under it, I think it should, therefore, be sustained as oue which is reasonable, and competent for the parties to make, and in no degree incom- patible with the principle of the decision, above referred to. ‘The charge of the circuit judge in Hart vs. Penn. R. R. Co. (7 Fed. Rep. 630) is directly in point, sustaining the validity of such a stipulation as the present, and as it seems to me, should be followed. This exception is therefore allowed, and the amount due should be adjusted acvord- ingly. Nov. 1, 1883 GENERAL NEWs, St. Paul’s Island is called the graveyard of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Eureka Iron Company’s property, Wyandotte, Mich., has been sold for $550,- 000. The Northwest Lumbering Company’s mills at Selkirk have shut down after a good season’s work. Commodore John M. Berrien, a retired oflicer of the United States Navy, died of paralysis, at Philadelphia, November 21. The boilers of the tug Erie Belle exploded at Kincardine, Ont., Nov. 21st, tearing the boat to atome, killing four men and blowing eight others into the lake, whence they were rescued. Horatio G. Billings, lumber, of Chicago, suspended. Liabilities $100,000; assets, $190,- 000. His money is bound up in Michigan logs, which the low stage of water prevented from floating down to market. The tonnage of sailing vessels (sea-going only) in 1884 was 13,911,915, in 1882 13,739,- 970, in 1883, 138,647,877. ‘The tonnage of steamers during the same periods was In 1881, 7,475,851, in 1882, 8,404,392 and in 1883, 9,232,096, The Union Drydock Company, of Buffalo, is building the frame of the new steamer which is to ply between Alexandria Bay r pendent and Cape Vincent for the Thousand Island Steamboat Company. Ladd, Fortin & Volmuth, of Chicago, | have dissolved, and been succeeded by the Chicago Automatic Engine Marufacturing Company. ‘This company has gone largely into the manufacture of automatic engines, pumps, ete, A new process in the manufacture of low carbon Bessemer steel was commenced on the 22d inst., at the Bessemer Steel Works, Homestead, which, if successful, will com- pletely revolutionize the work of puddling, doing away with that process altogether. A number of puddlers from various mills were present during the experiments and watched the result with great interest. When the steamships Athabasca and Al-, goma are landed at Buflalo, the trip from Moutreal will have cost about $12,006. ‘The job is not done by coutract, but at s0 much per hour, This morning the tugs Active and Folger and steamer Hastings left for Port Dalhousie with the steamship Atha- basca in tow. ‘The parts were lashed closely, the bow first. It is said that the City of Milwaukee, one ot the most elegant steamers on the lakes, heretofore running between Grand Havea and Milwaukee in connection with the De- troit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad, will be placed upon the Detroit and Cleve- land rome next season, forming an inde- line. Should the arrangement talked of be carried out, the City of Milwau- kee will cover the route daily, going and re- turning. Her speed averages seventeen miles an hour, and her course across lake Michigan from Grand Haven to Milwaukee, eighty-five miles, has been run for weeks in succession in.a trifle over five hours, usually five hours and ten minutes, ’ BOOK NOTICES. Harper’s Magazine for December is a Christmas number, with an extraordinary wealth and variety of papers, poems, and pictures, by an array of authors and _ artists (American and English) seldom, if ever. brought together before. This will take the place of the mammoth Harper’s Christinas of 1882, wnich will not be repeated this year, The number has four plates, in addition to its usual 160 well-filled pages. The illustra- tions alone have. cost, it is stated, over $10,- 000. i ‘The number opens with a charming Christ- mas titlepage, drawn by Dielmar, the ariist of “A Girl I Know,” in which pretty pictures of Santa Claus and his reindeers and of the! Christmas waits are united by a wreath of Chistmas holly. The opening paper is by George William Curtis, the first distinctive article outside of the Easy Chair that he has written for years, It deals with ‘Christinas,” old and new, and particularly with how the Pilgrim Fathers declined to celebrate it. The Frontispiece, “Under the Mistletoe,’’ also by Dielman, is one of the illustrations for this paper. The poet Whittier contributes a most worthy and beautiful Christmas poem, ‘lhe Supper of St. Gregory.” illustrated by F. 8. Church. But “lhe Kingdom of the Child,”’ by aless known poet, Mrs. F. L. Mace, is not less beautiful, and will impiess readers with its tender and lofty Christmas joy, while Mrs, Curtis adds to it a charming picture of child-faces. Thackeray’s daughter contributes a de- lightful personal sketch of her father’s friend, the poet ‘Tennyson, tor which he has himself given her material. The illustrations include a fine plate portrait, beautitul drawings by Alfred Parsons, and unpublished sketches by Thackeray and Rossetti. E. P. Roe, of whose novels 400,000 copies have been sold, begins ‘ta novel novel,” “Nature’s Serial Story,” in which he pro- poses month by month to follow the round of country life. Gibson and Dielman il- lustrate it lavishly. William Black, in a pleasant letter, tells of his beloved West Highlanders, among whom he has laid the scenes of so many of his novels. In_ illustrating it Mr. Abbey shows unexpected strength as a landscape artist. A most curious paper on “Nest-Buildera of the Sea,’? by C.F. Holder, will delight students of nature, with its brillant illustra- tions of nest-building fishes by J. C. Beard. The number is very strong in stories. Mr. W. D. Howells contributes a delightful faree, “The Register,” gvhich Mr. Heinhart il- lustrates; Boughton, the artist, makes his debut asa story-teller with ‘lhe Kissing- Bridge,” a legend of Albany, illustrated by a full page plata from himself; Charles Beade has a characteristic story, ‘’There’s | many adslip ’twixt the Cup and the Lip,’ | and Edward Everett: Hale one of his ex- traordinary inveations deseribing “Colonel | lugham’s Journey” to the North Pole; and Mrs. P. Y. Pember contributes a Virginia ghost-story, ‘Iwo very strong features are Mr. Abbey’s thirteen illustrations tor Pope’s “The Quiet Life,” and others for a pretty poem, “The Milkmaid,” by Austin Dobson, There are still other poems by Johu B, ‘abb, Mrs. Dorr, and R.J. Cordova, the latter with original inusic by Mosenthal. The Editorial Departments are as bright as usual; the Drawer has a pleasant in- troductory Christmas bit trom the pen of Charles Dubley Warner, and several illus- trations, ‘The publishers announce that this notable number (in which nothing is continued over from the volumn just finished) is but the be- ginning of a series “unexampled in magazine literature.” Mr. Black’s Shakspearian novel begins in January, with Abbey illustrations, and will run parallel with Mr. Roe’s serial through the year. Tne DECEMBER UENTURY.—A portrait of Peter Cooper, engraved on wood by Thomas Johnson from a photograph taken a few mouths before his death, is the frontispiece of the December number. Mrs. Susan N. Carter, who is at the head of the Woman’s Art School of the Cooper Institute, con- tributes an anecdotal paper which throws much light on Mr. Cooper’s ideas and his genérous aims in promoting the education of young women for ekilled occupations. Other biographical papers in the same num- ber are Miss Anna Bicknell’s character sketch of ‘The Pretenders to the Throne of France,” illustrated by portraits; and Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer’s critical essay on “George Fuller,’ with engravings of three of his best pictures. é Dr. Charles Waldstein, the young Ameri- can who lectures on archeology at Cam- bridge University, England, ‘contributes an instructive illustrated paper on *“lhe Frieze of the Parthenon,” with special reference to a recent discovery by himself in connection with the Athene. An entertaining paper on Devonshire, entitled “lhe Fairest Country in England,” by Francis George Heath, is the opening il- lustrated article, and containe nine charm- ing sketches by Harry Fenn. In a profusely illustrated paper on Los Angeles, entitled, “Echoes from the City of the Angels,”’ H. H. closes her series of picturesque articles on Southern Calfernia. Professor J. Rendel Harris, of Johns Hopkins University, writes of “The Original Documents of the New ‘Testament, and gives an interesting illus- trated account of a discovery wuich the author believes thathe has made with regard to the text of the Bible and other ancient manuscripts. In fiction the December Century is uncom- monly generous as well as interesting. It offers parts of three serial stories,—namely, the much-discussed ** Bread- Winners ;’’ George W. Cable’s new romance, ‘Dr. Sevier,’ which was begun iu the November number; and the first part of Robert Grant's, story of New York life,“An Average Man,” which will run through six numbers. ‘Be- sides, it prints the conclusion of Henry James’s novelette, ‘I'he Impressions of « Cousin,” and a refined and humorous short story, “One Chapter,’’? by a new American writer, Miss Grace Denio Litchfield. More extracts from Robert Louis Stevenson’s graceful and humorous narrative of moun- tain life in California, ‘The Silverado Squatters,” are given tn the December num- ber, which concludes it so far as the Century is concerned. ‘The whole narrative will be issued later in book form. ‘Topics of tle times includes able editorals on the leading questions of the day. Sr. Nicnoras ror DecemBer.—John G. Whittier opens the Christmas St. Nicholag with an Indian legend told in verse, entitled “How the Robin Came;’’ Julian Hawthorne follows with the first half of “‘Almion, Auria, and Mona,’ a charming fanciful tale; and Louis M. Alcott contributes the second half of her bright Christinas story, ‘tSophie’s Secret.”’ Captain Mayne Reid’s new and exciting serial, ‘Ihe Land of Fire,” 1s also begun. Ic is the last work of the veteran story-teller, whose death followed so suddenly the com- pletion of this manuscript. Copiously and cleverly illustrated by Kelly is the highly original sketch by Charles Dudly Warner, called ‘Fare ina Street- Car ;” “Magnie’s Dangerous Ride,’’ the first of Prof. Boyesen’s ‘Tales of ‘'wo Con- tinente,” is begun, with spirited illustrations by Henry Sandham of the hero's involuntary journey on a reindeer; and Frank R. Stock- ton is represented by a more than usually unusual fairy tale, with appropriate illustra- tions by Birch, “Edouard Frere and his Child) Pictures” are the subjects and tide of a delightful paper by Mra, Champney, with reproduc- tions of six ot his most famous works and with some added pencil sketches by J. W. Champney. Among the poems are “The Birds of