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| OLIVER v. MARYLAND INSURANCE COMPANY
11 U.S. 487(1813) Cranch 487
PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff appealed a judgment of the United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland, which held that defendant insurers were not liable under an
insurance policy, following seizure by a British naval vessel of plaintiff's ship and cargo after departing Spain for the United States.
OVERVIEW: Plaintiff argued that defendant insurers were liable under a policy of insurance for the seizure of plaintiff's ship and cargo while enroute from Spain to Baltimore. Specifically, plaintiff denied that the ship's delay at Barcelona and its stoppage at Salou constituted deviations that voided the policy, because the delay was due to usage of the trade and fear of capture, and the stoppage due to usage of the trade. Rejecting all such justifications, the United States Supreme Court acknowledged that an idle waste of time on the part of any vessel discharged its insurers. The Court then found that plaintiff's ship remained at Barcelona, after discharging cargo, longer than the usage of the trade allowed for taking in cargo there and, thus, vacated the insurance policy by thereafter proceeding to Salou to pick up cargo destined for the United States. Plaintiff's justification of delay based on fear of capture was also without merit. The danger would have to have been obvious and immediate to plaintiff's ship at that point in time and imminent. Here, the Court concluded, the danger to plaintiff's vessel was a mere general danger, distant and indefinite. OUTCOME: The United States Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, holding that defendant insurers were not liable under an insurance policy following seizure by a British naval vessel of plaintiff's ship and cargo after departing Spain for the United States, because port delays in Spain by plaintiff's ship was longer than usage of trade allowed for taking in cargo, and because fear of capture at sea was distant and indefinite, and not obvious and imminent. |
