. including the gold, must contribute to the expenses in certain proportions, according to the value, and this threw by far the greater part of the expenses on the gold. The agents of the plaintiffs and defendants protested against the award, as the gold had been landed before any of the operations had been commenced; but the award was ratified by the Russian Minister at Constantinople, and no notice of appeal to the Court at St. Petersburg having been lodged within eight days, it became a definite judgment, binding on all parties." "The plaintiffs, having been thus obliged to pay the sum awarded against the gold, brought an action to recover a proportionate part of it from the defendants, as a partial loss by the perils insured against." "It was holden that it was unnecessary to go into the question of whether or not the judgment of the Russian Consular Court was strictly according to the law administered in that Court; the ship having been wrecked, the consequence was that the gold had got into the hands of the Russian authorities, and, in order to get it back, the plaintiff's had been compelled to pay the sum claimed, and this was the immediate consequence of the wreck, and the plaintiffs were therefore entitled to recover the money as a loss by perils of the sea; and that the plaintiffs had done all that a reasonable uninsured owner would have done, and were not bound to have appealed to the Court at St. Petersburg." "Secondly, in cases of admitted general average, England, in conformity with the maritime laws and usages of all Nations, holds that the place of the ship's destination, or delivery of her cargo, is the place at which the average is to be adjusted." "This adjustment must be made conformably to the law of that place." "When so made, it will be conclusive as to the items, as well as to the apportionment thereof upon the various interests, although it may be different from what the English law would have made, if the adjustment had been settled in an English port. XIV.-Abandonment. § 65. The insured ship and goods can be abandoned or given over to the underwriters in the following cases, viz.: a. Shipwreck. b. Stranding with breaking up. c. Being rendered useless by sea-damage. e. Bringing-up or detention by a Foreign f. Stoppage or detention by the enemy or other force majeure, after the beginning of the voyage; all without prejudice to the particular provisions contained in the subjoined general rules of the lex mercatoria, unless the lex fori provides otherwise. 1o. The abandonment of the ship, by reason of its being rendered useless, cannot be made, if, after having struck or stranded, she can be brought off again, repaired, and put in proper state to pursue her voyage to her place of destination, and if the cost of repairs does not exceed a certain part of the value at which she has been estimated on closing the insurance, as stated by the lex loci contractus (§ 63, sub-section 15). * Sir ROBERT PHILLIMORE. Comm. on Int. Law. Vol. IV., p. 637 et seq. Le port de destination, ou autrement dit, celui où le voyage s'achève, est le port du réglement des avaries. German decision, 1872; Journal de Droit Internat. Privé, No, III., p. 133. CHAPT. X. 2°. If ships or goods have been stranded, brought up or detained, the expenses of salvage and reclaiming come to the charge of the underwriters, even when those expenses, added to the loss, exceed the amount insured. total loss. 3°. The abandonment, in case of perishing or Constructive deterioration, cannot be made, unless the loss or damage amounts to or exceeds the stipulated part of the value insured, as required by the lex loci contractus with regard to constructive total loss. 4°. The assured can also abandon to the insurer and subsequently claim payment, without any proof of the loss of the ship being necessary, if, a certain time, as required by the lex loci contractus, and in proportion to the length of the voyage, has elapsed since the day of the sailing of the ship or since the day on which the last accounts concerning such ship had been received and no tidings of her whatever have come to hand. In these cases it is sometimes sufficient that the assured declares (under oath) that no accounts of the ship insured, or of the ship in which the insured goods have been laden, have directly or indirectly been received by him; this without prejudice to contrary evidence. 5°. Abandonment can be made in case of bringing up or detention, if the ships or goods, brought up or detained, have not been restored or released within the terms fixed by the lex loci contractus, counting from the day on which the assured has received advice thereof and according to the distance of the place where the bringing up or detention has occurred. In case of condemnation of the ship or goods brought up or detained, the abandonment can be made immediately. 6°. When deteriorated goods, or condemned ships have been sold on the voyage, the assured can abandon his rights to the underwriters, if, $65. notwithstanding his endeavours, the proceeds have not been accounted for to him within the time fixed by the lex loci contractus; all to be estimated according to the distance of the place of sale, and from the day on which advice of the sale has been received by the assured. 7°. On his making abandonment, the assured is bound to state all the insurances, which he has effected or ordered to be effected on the property insured and the bottomry or respondentia which, to his knowledge, has been taken on the insured ship or goods; in default thereof, the term of payment, which should begin to run from the day of abandonment, is suspended till the day on which he shall have made that statement, without any prolongation of the time, allowed by law for abandonment, being occasioned thereby. In case of false statements, the assured is deprived of the benefits of the insurance. 8°. On making the abandonment, the assured is likewise bound to acquaint the underwriters with what he has done to promote the saving or release of the object insured, and the persons or correspondents he has employed to that effect. 9°. Abandonment cannot be made partially, nor conditionally. If the full value of ships or goods has not been insured, and the assured has thus run the risk of a part himself, the abandonment does not extend any further than to the amount insured, in proportion to the part uncovered by insurance.. 10°. The abandonment having been made conformably to the prescriptions of the law governing the insurance contract, the objects insured belong to the underwriter, from the day on which notice of the abandonment was given, without prejudice to the share of the assured, in the case alluded to in sub-section 9°. . 11°. The underwriter cannot exempt himself from the payment of the sum insured, on the pretence that the ship or goods have been released after the abandonment, if an action on the policy for a total loss have begun before the restitution. 12°. If the time of payment has not been determined by the agreements, the underwriter must pay the sum insured, together with the charges of the abandonment, within the term fixed by the lex loci contractus, after notice of the abandonment has been given. After that time he also pays legal interests. The abandoned property is responsible for that payment. Arnould with structive totul "With regard to loss, it is obvious," says Opinion of Arnould, "that between possession in safety, of regard to Conthe property insured and its annihilation, for loss. instance by fire, or its entire loss, for example by foundering at sea, the possible variety and modification of loss is indefinite." "There may be a total loss, for example through capture by the enemy, that shall cease to be a loss, for instance by recapture or by restitution under sentence of a Court of prize. There may be a loss which is not total, but for all practical purposes is nothing else, that is to say, it must, for the purpose of the policy, be construed as a total loss. There is a constructive total loss of the ship, when by perils of the sea she is converted into such a wreck that it would cost more money to restore her than she would afterwards sell for. The assured may, under these circumstances, give the underwriters notice that he abandons the wreck to them, and claims for a total loss. But the underwriters are not bound to act upon his construction of existing circumstances and accept the abandonment. He may |