Link
General Ins. Co. of America v. Link
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Denman, J.
This is an appeal from a decree holding appellant liable to appellees on its policy of war risk insurance for damages fo ap-pellees’ wooden motorship Eastern Prince by collision with the United States Navy Yard oiler Roustabout, a small armed tanker. The collision occurred on May 11, 1942, during the war with Japan.
The Roustabout, in command of a Naval Lieutenant, was engaged in a series of voyages in carrying naval supplies from the Naval Station in Seattle to the Naval Section Base in Sitka, Alaska, traveling in the Inside Passage. On the voyages from Sitka to Seattle she carried cargo consisting of freight offered by the Navy or Coast Guard, empty containers, oil drums, empty acetylene and oxygen tanks, damaged airplane motors, damaged airplanes, trucks and automobiles. At the time of the collision while so enroute to her Seattle station, the Roustabout had aboard water ballast and miscellaneous dry cargo of the nature just above described. Before the collision she had left the Naval Section Base at Sit-ka enroute to the Seattle Naval station. The voyage was solely for a war purpose in a continuing war service between Seattle and Sitka, serving the resistance to the Japanese…