Automobile Ins. Co. of Hartford v. Hart-Wood Lumber Co.

Appellant filed a libel in personam against William H. Wood, and the Tacoma Shipping Company, a partnership composed of William H. Wood and Alfred Hart, and others, for the loss of a part of a deck load of lumber shipped on board the steam lumber schooner San Diego on August 13, 1935.

The San Diego was being operated by the co-partnership under a charter from the owners for operations along the Pacific Coast. E. L. Reitz, doing business under the fictitious name of E. L. Reitz Company, desiring to ship lumber belonging to him from Olympia, Washington, to San Pedro, California, entered into an agreement with W. H. Wood, acting for himself and for the copartnership, for the transportation of an entire cargo of lumber. The terms of this contract are in dispute. The ap-. pellant, the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, was the insurance carrier for E. L. Reitz, the owner of the lumber, and, because of the partial loss of the deckload of lumber, paid to E. L. Reitz the value of the lumber thus lost ($6,136.85), as a loan, such loan to be repayable only out of any net recovery which E. L. Reitz might make by reason of his claim for loss or damage to said lumber, and…