Smitton v Orient Steam Navigation Company Ltd
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 11 March 1907 |
| Date | 11 March 1907 |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
King's Bench Division
Channell, J.
Smitton v. Orient Steam Navigation Company Limited
The WarkworthDID=ASPM 5 Asp. Mar. Law Cas. 326 49 L. T. Rep. 715 9 P. Div. 20
Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 60), s. 502.
Warranty of seaworthiness Negligence Theft from cabin
MARITIME LAW CASES. 459 K.B.Div.] Smitton v. Orient Steam Navigation Company Limited. [K.B. Div. Monday, March 11,1907. (Before Channell, J.) Smitton v. Orient SteamNavigation Company Limited, (a) Warranty of seaworthiness - Negligence - Theft from cabin - Conditions on ticket - No declaration of value - " Fault or privity " - Liability - - Merchant Shipping Act 1894, (56 & 57 Vict. c. 60),s. 502. A passenger on a steamer placed his watch, with gold cigar cutter and sovereign puree (containing 51.) attached, on retiring "for the night in a canvas pocket suspended from a hook over the top bunk -which he occupied in a cabin on the (a) Reported by W. TEEVOR TURTON, Esq.,Barrister-at-law. MARITIME LAW CASES. 460 K.B.Div.] Smitton v. Orient Steam Navigation Company Limited. [K.B. Div. main deck. The pocket was placed where it was under the superintendence of the shipowner'i marine superintendent. Above the pocket was a fanlight, which the passenger left open, leading into the ventilating shaft which opened or the spar deck. A small man by putting his head and shoulders into the opening of the ventilating shaft could, by stretching his arm downwards, reach the pocket. The contents of the pocket had disappeared by the following morning. Finger marks were found round the pocket and in the ventilating shaft. The passenger's ticket contained a condition that " the owners will not be responsible for and shall be exempt from all liability in respect of . . . any loss ... of . . . any baggage, property, goods, effects, articles, matters, or things belonging to or carried by or with any passenger, whether the same shall arise from or be occasioned by thefts . . . by persons in the employment of the owners, or by others . . . or any other acts, defaults, or negligence of the owners' agents or servants of any kind whatsoever. ..." The passenger had not declared the value of the articles. On an action for damages for negligence or alternatively for breach of warranty of seaworthi-ness: Held, that the liability of the carrier as regards articles carried on the person or in the passenger's personal custody was the same as that towards the passenger - viz., to take reasonable care. If the articles by being placed in the cabin pocket ceased to be in the control of the passenger, then the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, s. 502, applied. There was no "fault or privity " of the shipowners. The condition on the ticket protected the shipowners. The shipowners were not liable for the loss. COMMERCIAL LIST. Action tried before Channell, J. sitting without a jury. Claim for damages for negligence and alternatively for breach of warranty of seaworthiness. The plaintiff was a first-class passenger on the defendant's Royal Mail steamship Omrah, from London to Naples, and occupied a cabin on the main deck. On the 26th Oct. 1906 the plaintiff, on retiring for the night, placed his watch and chain with a gold cigar cutter and sovereign purse (containing 51.) attached in a canvas watch pocket, which was suspended from a hook placed a few inches above the head of the top bunk. The plaintiff occupied the top bunk and his wife the lower one. Above the pocket was a fanlight...
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