. 64 7°. The goods thrown overboard are valued at the market-price of the ship's place of discharge, after deduction of freight, import duties, and ordinary charges; the quality, kind and conditions of such goods are to be made out by the bills of lading, invoices, and other evidence. 8°. If the kind or quality of merchandise has been inaccurately described in the bill of lading, being of greater value than that mentioned in the bills of lading, then the contribution is fixed in the assessment of general average according to the real value of the merchandise. But in the case of jettison, losses are made good according to the quality mentioned in the bills of lading. If goods are of a lower quality than that stated in the bill of lading, they contribute, nevertheless, to the general average according to their real value. The goods are made good at the rate of their real value, if they have been sacrificed in jettison. 9°. The provisions, the clothes of the crew, the daily clothes of the passengers, and also the ammunition required for the defence of the ship, do not contribute to the general average. But all articles of this description which have been thrown overboard by jettison, are made good through assessment of all the saved merchandise. 10°. For goods for which no bill of lading of the master exists, or which are not mentioned in the manifest, no compensation is paid, if they have been thrown overboard; but they contribute to the assessment in the loss if they have been saved. 11°. Goods laden on deck likewise contribute to the general average, if they have been saved. If the master has placed the goods on deck, without the knowledge or consent of the shipper, and the same have been thrown overboard or . damaged by the jettison, the shipper has the right of claiming assessment for compensation, which gives a right of recourse to all parties concerned against the ship and the master. 12°. In case the ship is lost, notwithstanding the jettison of goods or cutting of ship's rigging, no assessment for compensation takes place, and the goods, saved or rescued, are not liable to payment or compensation of loss sustained by the things thrown overboard, damaged or cut. 13°. If the ship is saved by the jettison or cutting, and is lost afterwards in the prosecution of her voyage, and goods are then saved, the goods thus saved, are alone liable to the jettison, for the value they may then have, after deduction of the salvage dues. 14°. If the ship and cargo are saved by cutting or other damage caused to the ship, but the goods perish or are robbed afterwards, the master has no claim on the owners, shippers or consignees of the goods, for contribution to the assessment, in consequence of such cutting or damage. 15°. If the goods are lost, by the fault or act of the shipper or consignee, they nevertheless. contribute in the assessment of general average. 16°. The owner of a cargo need not, in any case, bear a greater share. in a general average, than for the value which the goods have on their arrival; with the exception of such expenses as have been, bonâ fide, incurred by the master, even without authorization, after the loss of the ship, or the bringing up or seizure of the goods, to recover some part of what was lost, or to reclaim the goods brought up; even if it has been done without any good result. 17°. If, after the assessment, the goods thrown overboard have been recovered by the owners, the latter are bound to return, to the master and the parties concerned in the cargo, what has been assigned to them for the same by the adjustment, under deduction of damage, charges, and salvage. In such case the ship and parties concerned participate in what is thus brought in, in the same proportion in which they have contributed for the loss by the jettison. 18°. If the owner of the goods, thrown overboard, recovers the same and does not claim any indemnity, he is free from contributing to any general average which, after the jettison, befalls the goods which have remained safe. With regard to English Law on general average, Sir Robert Phillimore makes the following statements. "When the preservation of the ship has required the throwing overboard or sacrifice of a portion of the goods, equity demands that a general contribution be made by all towards a loss sustained by some for the benefit of all; and this is called in England by the name of general average. "The Law on this subject was transplanted from the maritime code of Rhodes into the Roman Law, as follows:-Lege Rhodia cavetur, ut, si lavandae navis gratiâ jactus mercium factus sit, omnium contributione sarciatur quod pro omnibus datum est."* "According to the English Law," all loss which arises in consequence of extraordinary sacrifices made, or expenses incurred for the preservation of the ship and cargo, come within general average, and must be borne proportionably by all who are interested." (Birkley v. Presgrove, 1 East's Rep. 220). "It has been decided by the English Courts, that a claim for contribution to general average arises only where a part of the cargo is sacrificed * DIG. L. XIV, T. II. СПАРТ. Х. $64, for the preservation of the ship and the rest of the cargo from an impending danger, not where a part of the cargo is sold to raise money at a port to which the ship has put back for the repair of damage incurred by ordinary perils of the sea. (Hallett v. Wigram, 1850. 9 Manning & Scott's Common Bench Rep. p. 580). * "The principle of this rule has been adopted by all commercial Nations, but with considerable variation in practice as to the kind of losses which demand its application, and as to the nature of the interests compellable to contribute. The question, therefore, may arise, and has arisen: What law ought to bind the underwriters to reimburse a contribution exacted in a foreign port. The English cases have established the following propositions." "First, with respect to what law shall govern the construction of the insurance covenant as to what is general average. In the former edition of this work it was stated: that it had been decided, after much doubt and consideration, that the insurer of goods to a foreign State is not liable to indemnify the assured, though a subject of that State, who has been obliged, by a decree of a competent Court of that State, to pay a contribution as for general average, which by the law of England is not general average, unless it be proved, as a fact in the case, that the insured and insurer contemplated in their contract the general usage amongst merchants, or the usage of the port in which the general average was struck. The North American United States' cases are in accordance with this doctrine." "This principle, however, seems to have been reversed, in the recent and important case of * Sir ROBERT PHILLIMORE. Comm, Vol. IV. Note p. 638. Dent v. Smith, which has been since, more than once, approved by the English Courts." "In that case the plaintiffs effected a policy of insurance in London with the defendants, on five boxes of bar-gold, in the ship called the Dutchman, which became a Russian ship, at and from London to Constantinople, including all risks from the Bank of England until safely delivered to the consignees at Constantinople. The perils insured against were the usual perils, including those of the seas, with the usual 'suing and labouring clause.' The ship sailed with the gold and other cargo on board, and was stranded in Turkish territory, about 100 miles from Constantinople, and within the jurisdiction of that port. The gold was immediately landed by the Captain, and deposited with the Russian Consul; and the consignees were compelled, in order to obtain it, to make a deposit of 20 per cent., upon the gold, as security for the payment of any sum that might be awarded against them as average or salvage expenses by the Russian Consular Court. In Turkish territory, by capitulations with the, Great Powers, all matters touching ships and their cargoes are decided by the Consular Court of the country to which the ship belongs. After the gold had been landed, operations were commenced to get the vessel off, which proved ineffectual. But most of the cargo was saved, and many parts of the fittings of the ship. According to the practice, the Russian Consul appointed a curator of the wreck, and three persons were appointed by the Russian Consul to decide upon the average to be paid by all parties concerned. They found it not a case of average, but a case of salvage; and they awarded that the cargo, * L. R. 4. Q. B. 414. |