Lamborn

This case is before this court on appeal and cross-appeal from a' decree in an action ■ in rem in admiralty.

The original libel by appellants and cross-appellees against the steamship Kermit was an ordinary libel for cargo damage. It alleged that the respondent vessel was a common carrier; that there were shipped on board her at Hamburg, June 15 and 17, 1920, 16,780 cases of refined sugar for carriage to New York; that clean bills of lading were issued therefor; and that the sugar was delivered in New York on July 6, 1920, in a damaged condition. Damages in the sum of $57,150 were claimed. The libel was filed in Los An-geles, Cal., on December 16, 1924, four years and six months after the shipment was made.

. An answer was filed admitting the shipment -and denying the other material allegations of the libel, and, in- addition, set forth various defenses, including, first, that by the terms of the bill of lading the carrier was expressly exempted from liability for damage due to weak or insufficient cases, which admittedly had caused all the asserted damage, and, second, that the cause of action arose more than four years preceding the filing of the libel, and that the libel-ants…