Wilmington Transp. Co. v. Standard Oil Co.

This appeal is taken by the Wilmington Transportation Company from an interlocutory decree in admiralty adjudging appellant solely responsible for a collision between the tanker W. S, Miller owned by Standard Oil Company, appellee, and a drawbridge owned by the Southern Pacific Company across a navigable channel in Los Angeles Harbor leading from the turning basin through the drawbridge in question tO' the West Basin.

At the time of the collision the oil tanker was being towed by two tugs belonging to Wilmington Transportation Company, and the pilot of the latter company upon the bridge of the tanker was in charge of the vessels at the time of the collision. The oil. tanker was 435 feet long, with 56-foot beam.. The W. S. Miller had partly passed through the draw when the upper portion of the mid-ship section of the ship, about 140 feet abaft the bow on the port side, came in contact with the lift span of the bridge.

The appellant contends that the collision resulted from the fact that the clearance of 100 feet required by the orders of the Secretary of War was not provided, either because the lift span was not raised sufficiently high to give that clearance or because the…