Two barges owned by Northern Barge Co. (The Montrose and
the Hooper) were moving cargo off the Jersey Coast. The barges were being
towed by tugs belonging to a tugboat company.
There was a storm, and both barges sunk. The owners of
the cargo sued Northern for the loss of cargo, and Northern sued and the
tugboat company for negligence. The tugboat company filed a
petition to limit its liability.
At Trial, it was found that the barges and the tugs were
all unseaworthy, and determined assessed half the damages to Northern and
half to the tugboat company.
The tugs were found to be unseaworthy because they lacked
radios. Radios would have alerted the tugboat captains that a storm was
on its way and they could have sought shelter.
The tugboat company appealed.
The Appellate Court affirmed the judgment.
Although a few tugboat companies had radios on their
ships, at the time (1928), it was far from common practice, or general
custom.
The Appellate Court found that reasonable prudence
is not necessarily common prudence, and just because a whole industry
has lagged in the adoption of new safety equipment, that doesn't mean it
isn't negligent to fail to adopt the new equipment.
Btw, this case has a strange name because it's an admiralty
case, and the nomenclature is different.
