US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

The agent who makes insurance for his principal has authority to abandon without a formal letter of attorney.

If the abandonment be legal, it puts the underwriters completely in the place of the assured, and the agent of the assured becomes the agent of the underwriters.

A special verdict is defective which does not find whether the abandonment was in reasonable time. What is reasonable time of abandonment is a question compounded of fact and law which must be found by a jury under the direction of the court.

The informality of a deed of cession is unimportant, because if the abandonment be unexceptionable, the property vests immediately in the underwriters, and the deed is not essential to the right of either party.

Error to the Circuit Court of the district of Maryland in an action of covenant upon a policy of insurance upon goods on board the ship Minerva from Philadelphia to Laguira and back to Philadelphia.

The cause was tried upon the issue of non infregit conventionem, and the jury found a special verdict stating the following facts:

On 5 March, 1807, Christian Dannenberg, as agent of the plaintiff, who was a citizen of Pennsylvania, shipped for Laguira, on account and at the sole risk of the plaintiff sundry goods, being American property and regularly documented as such, to the value of $8,700 and upwards, on board the ship Minerva, and consigned them to William Parker, supercargo on board. On 12 March she sailed with the goods from Philadelphia for Laguira.

On 21 March, Charles G. Boerstler, for the plaintiff, effected an insurance with the Chesapeake Insurance Company, who are citizens of the State of Maryland, upon the goods, to the amount of $8,700, by the policy mentioned in the declaration, which was executed under the common seal of the company.

On the outward voyage she was captured by a British privateer and carried into Curracoa. On 20 April, 1807, the captain made a protest. On 13 chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red

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June, 1807, the ship and goods being still in possession of the captors at Curracoa and there detained by them, the said Charles G. Boerstler, "for the plaintiff," abandoned to the Chesapeake Insurance Company, the goods shipped by Dannenberg for the plaintiff, by a letter to the president and directors of the Chesapeake Insurance Company, the defendants, in the words and figures following:

"Baltimore, June 13, 1807"

"President and Directors of the Chesapeake Insurance Company"

"Gentlemen,"

"Having this morning received a letter from Mr. O. Dannenberg, of Philadelphia, the agent for Mr. John Philip Stark, of Hanover, ordering me to abandon the goods shipped by him for Mr. Stark's account on board the American ship Minerva, Captain Newcomb, carried into and detained at Curracoa on her voyage from Philadelphia to Laguira, whereby the object of the expedition is totally frustrated and destroyed, I herewith abandon to you the whole of Mr. Stark's interest in the cargo of the Minerva, which you have insured in your office."

"I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,"

"Charles G. Boerstler"

Which abandonment the defendants then refused to accept.

W. Parker, the supercargo, addressed a memorial to the Governor of Curracoa on 19 June, 1810, in which he complains of the detention as being of the most ruinous consequences to the owners.

On 25 July, 1807, the vessel and cargo being still detained at Curracoa in the possession of the captors, Parker entered into an agreement with I. F. Burke, the owner of the privateer, by which a certain chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red

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part of the goods should be appraised and the price paid by Parker, to be repaid by Burke in case the goods should not be adjudged good prize, and that a certain other part should be kept by Burke upon his engaging to pay the value thereof in the like case. In consequence of which agreement the vessel was liberated and proceeded to Laguira, where the goods were sold, and produced about $5,900.

Parker employed an agent to attend the trial at Tortola and to claim the goods for the plaintiff, but a trial was never had, nor any proceedings instituted for the purpose of obtaining an adjudication,

On 22 August, 1807, Dannenberg, as agent of the plaintiff, executed a deed to the Chesapeake Insurance Company transferring to them all his right and title to the goods as attorney of the plaintiff, which deed they refused to receive. chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red

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