American Mail Line, Ltd. v. Skagit River Navigation & Trading Co.

This is an appeal by American Mail Line, Limited, claimant of the steamship President Madison, from interlocutory and final decrees in libels brought against the vessel and her owners by Skagit River Navigation & Trading Company and others, adjudging that respondent American Mail Line is liable to appellees for damage done when the President Madison broke from her moorings in Seattle during a windstorm of unprecedented violence and drifted against appellees’ vessels, causing the injuries for which relief is sought. The .appeal from the interlocutory decree takes issue with the District Court’s finding of fault in the President Madison. The American Mail Line appeals from the final decree on the same ground and also assigns error to the amount of damages awarded the Skagit River Company. All shipowning appellees take cross-appeals from the final decree, asserting error in various amounts awarded.

An admiralty appeal requires us to consider the evidence de novo. This consideration is controlled not only with reference to the burden of proof, but also where, as here, the evidence of fifty-two witnesses, all heard by the District Judge at the trial, required a record of testimony of…