States Steamship Co. v. United States

These are appeals from an interlocutory decree of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon on the petition of States Steamship Company, hereafter the Company, for exoneration from or limitation of liability for the total loss of the cargo of the S. S. Pennsylvania, which sank with all hands in the Gulf of Alaska on January 9, 1952, while enroute over the Great Circle route from Seattle, Washington, to Yokohama, Japan.

The district court held (a) that the Pennsylvania was not lost from a peril of the sea; (b) that she was unseaworthy; (c) that the employees of the Company had not exercised due diligence to make her seaworthy, but (d) that the Company was without privity in or knowledge of her unseaworthiness and hence was entitled to limit its liability to the pending freight.

Here there are no claims for loss of life. For loss of cargo, 46 U.S.C.A. § *460 183 (a) provides that “the liability of the owner of any vessel * * * for any loss * * * incurred, without the privity or knowledge of such owner or owners, shall not * * * exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner in such vessel, and her freight then pending.” The interest of the owner in the…

On Petitions for Rehearing

Before STEPHENS, Chief Judge, and DENMAN and POPE, Circuit Judges.

Following our decision in this case on May 31, 1957, all of the parties filed petitions for rehearing. The petition of States Steamship Company is denied. Upon consideration of the petitions of the United States and of Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, Pacific National Fire Insurance Company and The Dominion of Canada, that portion of our former opinion which affirmed the decree limiting liability is withdrawn and this opinion is substituted therefor. The remainder of our former opinion, rejecting the appeal of States Steamship Company, stands.

The details of the sinking of the S. S. Pennsylvania, out of which these proceedings grew, are stated in our former opinion. As there disclosed the vessel sailed on January 5, 1952, on what was designated her Voyage 6, from the Port *464 of Seattle for the Port of Yokohama. She sank during a storm in the Gulf of Alaska, with a total loss of the vessel and all of her crew. The appeals here are by States Steamship Company, owner and operator of the vessel, from the portion of the interlocutory decree denying exoneration, and by the other named…

On Petition for Rehearing on Limitation

On May 31, 1957, this court handed' down an opinion in this case which af *471 firmed the decision of the trial court rejecting the claim of appellant States Steamship Company for exoneration from liability for loss resulting from the sinking of the S.S. Pennsylvania, and granting its claim for limitation of liability. Thereafter all parties filed petitions for rehearing. Upon consideration of those petitions the court withdrew its former decision of May 31, 1957, and on November 15, 1957, substituted a new opinion which upheld the appeals of the appellant insurance companies, the United States, and the Dominion of Canada, from the decree limiting liability of States Steamship Company. Thereafter States Steamship Company filed a further petition for rehearing and upon invitation of the court, the insurance companies, the United States and the Dominion of Canada filed briefs in answer thereto, to which the Steamship Company has filed a reply.

Our further study of the points raised by this petition for rehearing convinces us that whether it be our fault, or otherwise, our decision of November 15, 1957, has been misunderstood, and we now make…