American-Hawaiian S. S. Co. v. Bennett & Goodall
Opinion
lead Opinion
Ross, J.
These appeals grow out of a libel filed in the court below by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company against Bennett & Goodall to recover the value of a certain lighter belonging to the libelant and by it chartered, together with another one, to Bennett & Goodall, and which lighters were subsequently sub-chartered, with the consent of the libelant, to the Napa Gravel & Material Company, the performance of which contract with Bennett & Goodall was secured by a bond executed by the American Bonding Company of Baltimore. The subcharterer and its bonding company were made parties to the proceeding on petition of the respondent Bennett & Goodall, to the end that the entire controversy might be settled in the one action. One of the provisions of the subcharter was as follows:
And another of its provisions made the subcliarterer “fully responsible for and” liable “to pay on demand any and all damages and deterioration to said barges and to each and both of them not directly due to ordinary wear and tear or not included in and covered by the insurance policies now or hereafter in existence insuring said barges.”