DAMAGE TO A CARGO

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 6

DAMAGE TO A CARGO

'THE BERTIE MINOR CASE

JURY AWARDS CLAIMANTS £1007

The case in which W. M. Bannatyne mid Co., Ltd., merchants, of Wellington, sued Egnar Hannibal Christensen, master of the schooner Bertie Minor, for JSOOI 13s. Id. as tlio rcoiilt of damage to a cargo of. gasoline was continued before ,His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) and a jury of twelve at the Supreme Court yesterday. The case for the plaintiffs was that during May last the Bertie Minor left San Francisco with 12,703 cases of gasoline for delivery at Wellington. When the vessel arrived at Wellington it was found that nbout 3903 eases had been damaged, wherefor plifintiffs. claimed that they had suffered damage to the amount if .£2OOI 13s. Id. It was alleged that the schooner was uuseaworthy, in that the ship's side-planking was defectively caulked; the pipes leading into the bilges were blocked, and iu both the 'tween decks and the lower hold there was either an absence of dunnage or an insufficient quantity to protect the cargo. It was also claimed that the cases of gasoline were improperly slowed iu the 'tween decks and hold. The defence was a general denial of the allegations of plaintiffs. It was mainlined that Hie schooner was in nil respects seaworthy, and that the cargo was properly stowed and sufficiently dunnaged to protect, it from damage. The cause of the damage was a heavy storm which was encountered near the New Zealand coast, and -which was responsible for sea water entering the spaces where the cargo was and corroding n number of the tins containing the gasoline. Mr. M. Myers appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. A. W. Blair for the defendant, Captain Christensen, who was sued as representative of the -owner of the schooner. . The jury retired for two hours and twenty minutes, when they returned with a verdict for plaintiffs for ,£IOO7 18s. Judgment was entered .accordingly, costs being allowed nccording to scale.