Baker Salvage Co. v. The Taylor Dickson

Hughes, J., (after stating the facts as above.') From this epitome of the testimony taken in the case, I am of the opinion that at the beginning-of the service of the Sampson there were but two points of contract mutually.agreed upon and understood between the Baker Salvage Company and the American Towing Company, — which were, that the compensation of the Sampson was to be $100 a day, whether at work or not; and that each party was at liberty to terminate the service at its own pleasure. I am also of the opinion that at the beginning the question whether the Sampson should work exclusively on the Kimberly job, or' was to do whatever the Baker Salvage Company should have for her to do in the way of to wing and wrecking, was not definitely settled, upon a common understanding of both parties. I am of opinion, moreover, that in the progress of the service, and quite early in its progress, the acts of the parties tacitly decided this unsettled question; for I think that the frequent orders of the Baker Salvage Company to Capt. Delano to perform work that had no relation to the Kimberly, and his performance of such work without objection during a period of three weeks between the 3d and the 25th of December, put an interpretation upon the contract which the American Towing Company cannot now reasonably dispute. By the 25th of December it had become settled by the acts of [267] both parties that the Sampson was employed in the general service of the Baker Salvage Company, and not exclusively in the business of lightering the cargo of the Kimberly; and I think this was so, independently of the fact that no person connected with shipping and navigation in the Chesapeake and its waters could fail to know that the Baker Salvage Company was a wrecking, as distinguished from a towing, company, and was principally engaged in wrecking enterprises on the outer waters of the Atlantic. An engagement to serve a company thus habitually engaged, for an indefinite period, at the price of §100 a day, work or no work, would seem necessarily to imply service in more than one enterprise; would seem necessarily to imply service in the general wrecking business of that wrecking company. But, independently of this cogent consideration, and even although it were at first in the mind of the Sampson’s owners that she should serve exclusively in the Kimberly enterprise, still the acceptance and execution of orders to do other work for a period of three weeks, without objection or protest, seems to me to establish the conclusion that the service was a general service, and not a particular one only. The service having gone on upon tins basis for three weeks, then carne the order to the Sampson to go out to meet the Peed, and to take from her the Taylor Dickson; or, if the Peed should not have gone to Chicamicomico, then to continue on to that point herself, and save and bring in the Taylor Dickson. The acceptance and performance of this service by the Sampson, without objection or protest, was an additional proof that the service in which the Sampson was engaged was the general service of the Baker Salvage Company. The master of the Sampson was at liberty, under the contract, to terminate the service at the time of receiving the order to go lor the Taylor Dickson. He did not terminate it, but continued the service. He went to Chicamicomico as the avowed agent and servant of the Baker Salvage Company. He saved and brought in the schooner at the command of the salvage company, and delivered her to that company. In presenting his bill for his whole service, ending on the 26th January, Capt. Delano treated the period of his trip to Chica-micomico as part of the time for which the compensation of the Sampson was $100 per day. The correspondence between Petze and McBhiir on, and a few days after, the 7th of January, proceeded on the basis of $100 a day being due up to that time, and no claim was made or intimated by Petze that for any of the days constituting the period between 3d December and 7th January the $100 was not due. In fact no intimation was given either by Capt. Delano or by Petze, before the filing of their petition, that any exceptional service had been rendered by the Sampson that was not covered by the contract for $100 a day. It is clear to me, therefore, that the owners of the Sampson are precluded by their contract with the libelants, as well as by the equities of the case, and the ordinary considerations of fair dealing, from claiming, as against their employers, the Baker Salvage Company, any portion of the salvage award that lias been decreed in this cause, and I will so decree. [268] The claim of the master and crew of the Sampson, set up in their petition, stands, I think, on a better footing. The ordinary business of the American Towing Company of Baltimore, of which the master and crew of the Sampson were employes, was that of towing in the Chesapeake bay, and the rivers and harbors tributary to the bay. Their contract with the company was in contemplation of such service, — that of towing vessels within the capes. As long as the Sampson was employed in these inland waters, no extraordinary labor, skill, or risk was involved; but, when the owners of the Sampson authorized her to be sent outside of the capes, on extraordinary service, down the coast in stormy weather, for the purpose of rescuing a vessel in distress, and in fact engaging in a wrecking and salvage service, all without consulting the crew of the Sampson, there arose, independently of any existing statutes on the subject, an implied permission on the part of the owners to the crew to demand and receive the usual proportion of whatever salvage money might accrue from such expedition. While the owners of a ship may release, by express or implied contract, a claim for salvage, yet the seamen of a vessel which saves another are rendered incapable, by section 4535 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, of releasing their claim to participate in any salvage that may accrue from the enterprise. A decree may therefore be taken in favor of the master and crew of the Sampson for one-third of the reward of $3,000, after deducting costs, which was decreed in this cause on the 9th February last. On appeal to the circuit court, the foregoing decision was affirmed.