Western Lumber Mfg. Co. v. United States

Those are 'suits in personam for failure to deliver cargo. The goods in each ease were delivered in San Francisco, for carriage by one or all of the respondents to a seaport on the Atlantic Coast. They were not delivered at their destination, but were in fact lost through an error of navigation upon the coast of Oregon.

The theory of libelants’ case is that the carriage which diverted the goods from their transit to the eastern coast was a deviation from the bills of lading, and in consequence that the parties to those instruments arc liable for breach of contract; tha,t the respondents, who were not parties to said bills of lading, but who, nevertheless, embarked the goods upon their northern voyage, as well as the carrier which bore them north, are liable in tort for conversion; and, finally, that, if any party whose name was signed is not contractually liable, then the purported agent is liable for breach of implied warranty of authority.

The Pacific Steamship Company (Admiral Line) was Pacific Coast agent for the North Atlantic & Western Steamship Company (Nawsco Line), which acted as managing agent for the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation in the…