Rideout

A few minutes after midnight of July 7, 1930, the steamer Doylestown, a steel freighter, 2,600 ton gross and 300 feet in length over all, while attempting to dock at the private wharf of the Sperry Flour Company at Yallejo, Cal., brushed the side of the tugboat Halcyon, driving her on the barge Rideout No. 5 and squeezing both tug and barge against the dock to which they were moored, thereby causing damage to them. Their owner filed a libel against the Doylestown and her owner in the District Court for the Northern District of California to recover damages. Issue was properly joined, and after a hearing on the merits the district judge filed a memorandum opinion [50F.(2d) 439] wherein he found the Doylestown free from fault and exonerated her from any liability for the collision. A final decree dismissing the libel with costs was accordingly entered, and this appeal by the libelant is from such decree. The assignments of error are numerous hut relate entirely to the findings of fact by the trial court and its application thereto of rules of law. It is therefore unnecessary to consider or discuss the assignments seriatim.

Appellant concedes that the facts are substantially…