Weyerhaeuser Sales Co. v. The Cynthia Olson

The main issue in this cause is whether the jettisoning of libelants’ shipments of lumber was caused by “peril of the sea” or by the unseaworthiness of respondent’s vessel. If the former was the cause, libelants must lose; whereas they succeed in their libel if the latter was the cause.

The evidence shows that the Cynthia, while en route in coastal waters from Oregon to San Pedro, California, took a sudden list of approximately 35°. Whereupon, the Captain ordered the jettisoning of a part of the “on deck” lumber cargo.

In my opinion, the evidence is convincing that the sudden list was not due to a “peril of the sea.” The condition of the sea was not of that extraordinary nature, which could not have been guarded against by an ordinarily prudent skipper. The Giulia, 2 Cir., 218 F. 744 -746. The weather was not “too much for a well-found vessel to withstand.” See Judge Learned Hand’s decision in Philippine Sugar Central Agency v. Kokusai Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha, 2 Cir., 106 F.2d 32 , at pages 34 and 35; Jones Lumber Company v. Roen Steamship Co., 7 Cir., 213 F.2d 370 , at page 373. Nothing in the evidence indicates that the state of the sea or the velocity of the *149 wind, at the…