Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman Part 15

Each part owner is ent.i.tled to his share of the profits, and is also liable for the expenses of the vessel unless he has dissented from the voyage. But part owners who dissent from the voyage and take security for the safe return of the vessel are not ent.i.tled to share in the profits, nor are they liable for the expenses.

A part owner may bind the others for necessary supplies and repairs required that are procured on credit, unless his general authority to do this has been restricted. The ship's husband or managing owner has authority to do whatever is necessary for the prosecution of the voyage and earning the freight money. For such purposes he is the agent of the owners and can bind them by his contracts, unless his authority is revoked or modified.

Any owner can sell his interest whenever he pleases, and all of them may authorize the sale of the entire vessel. A writing is required to pa.s.s the t.i.tle, but as between the parties an oral sale and delivery will suffice, at common law. In many cases a bill of sale is required by statute. The writing should describe what things are transferred, but general terms such as appurtenances and necessaries have a fixed meaning which are understood. Intention is the guide to determine what pa.s.ses in such a sale, as in cases of fixtures already considered.

When the bill of sale is executed the purchaser becomes ent.i.tled to all the benefits of ownership, and incurs all the liabilities. If the sale is unconditional, the purchaser is liable for supplies though he may never have taken possession of the vessel, and neither the master nor the merchant furnishing the supplies knew of the sale. The purchaser is not liable for repairs made and supplies furnished before the sale, unless he has agreed to pay for them, or the vessel was at sea at the time. If she was, the purchaser takes her subject to all enc.u.mbrances on her, and to all lawful contracts made by the master before learning of the purchase.

A vessel may be mortgaged, and the federal statutes state how this shall be done. A shipbuilder may make a contract whereby he mortgages the vessel to be built in advance of its construction, and a lien attaches as it comes into existence. Such a mortgage is postponed or comes after a maritime lien, that will soon be explained, but comes before the debts of general creditors.

The mortgagor, so long as he retains possession, has all the rights of ownership, and all contracts made by him are valid which do not impair the security of the mortgage. When the mortgagee takes possession of the vessel he is ent.i.tled to all the earnings that accrue, but not to those which the mortgagor has reserved, even though they are for the current voyage. Furthermore, his interest may be attached by his creditors. The discharge and foreclosure of mortgages on vessels are governed for the most part by the rules that apply to chattel mortgages. A mortgage on a vessel should be recorded, and many of the rules and usages that apply to the recording of deeds apply also to such mortgages.

A contract may be made for a loan of money on the bottom of a vessel at a rate much greater than the usual rate of interest. Such a loan is sanctioned to enable the master to obtain money for supplies or repairs at some foreign port where they could not be otherwise obtained. The loan is on the security of the vessel and if she never arrives, the lender loses his money. If she does arrive at the port of her destination, the borrower personally, as well as the vessel, is liable for the repayment of the loan with the agreed interest thereon.

This maritime loan is highly regarded in legal tribunals, and is liberally construed by them to carry into effect the intention of the parties.

Such a loan or bond can be given by the master of the vessel only in case of necessity and great distress in a foreign port, where the owner is not present and has no representative with funds, and where the master has no other means of getting money. The master has a large discretion. "The necessity must be such as would induce a prudent owner to provide funds for the cost of them on the security of the ship, and that if the master did not take the money the voyage would be defeated or at least r.e.t.a.r.ded." The general purpose of the loan is to effectuate the objects of the voyage and the safety of the ship.

The appointment and employment of a master is wholly within the discretion of the owners. On his death or removal in a foreign port a successor may be appointed by the consul resident there of the country to which the vessel belongs, or by an agent of the owners, or by the consignees of the cargo who have advanced money for repairing the vessel. The registry acts of the United States require the putting of the master's name in the register, but if this is not done his authority is not impaired; and the one to whom the navigation and control of a vessel is entrusted is considered her master, although the name of another appears on the register. His contract may contain any stipulation to which the parties may agree. The right of a master to command his vessel is personal to him; and a sale by a master who is part owner of the vessel of his interest therein transfers no right to the command of the vessel which the other owners are bound to respect. Whenever he becomes incapable of commanding by reason of sickness, insanity, or other reason, the command with the duties pertaining thereto devolves on the first mate until the appointment of another master; should he be absent or incapable of acting, then the second mate and so on down the rank of officers.

The master must do all things for the protection and preservation of the several interests entrusted to him, the owners, charterers, cargo owners, underwriters. He must render a full and satisfactory account to the owners of the vessel of moneys secured and his disburs.e.m.e.nts before demanding any wages. At sea he is the supreme officer, has sole authority over both officers and crew to do justice to all persons under his command, and to protect pa.s.sengers and seamen from bad treatment while they are on board. It is said that in respect to pa.s.sengers he owes a higher and more delicate duty than he owes to the crew, but at the same time he has the necessary control over his pa.s.sengers and may make proper regulations for their government to ensure their safety, promote their comfort and preserve decent order.

He has authority to bind the owners when they are not present for expenditures needful in the way of repairs, supplies and other necessaries reasonably fit and proper for the safety of the vessel and the completion of the voyage.

As the seamen who serve on a vessel are generally ignorant and improvident, the execution of shipping articles are required by federal statute where the vessel is bound on a foreign voyage, or from a port in one state to a port in another. If these articles are not made seamen have the right to leave the vessel at any time, and may recover the highest rate of wages paid at their shipping port. The articles must be signed by the seaman and by the master, and the contract must be executed before the vessel proceeds on its voyage.

The seaman is not bound by any new or unusual stipulation put into the articles affecting his rights without full knowledge of it, and especially when he cannot read and the stipulation is not read and explained to him. Once executed, the articles cannot be varied by a verbal agreement between master and seaman.

The articles must specify clearly and definitely the nature of the intended voyage, the port at which it is to end and its duration.

Indefinite articles, leaving to the option of the master whether the voyage shall be long or to one or more foreign ports, or short to nearby domestic ports, are void. The articles must also state the amount of wages each seaman is to receive. Articles are void that fix a forfeiture of wages in excess of the amount named in the statute, or restrict the time in which seamen must sue for their wages. The contract may be dissolved by cruel treatment by the master and by an abandonment of the vessel without the master's consent, but not by the death, disability, removal or resignation of the master and the subst.i.tution of another. Besides the wages a seaman may recover, should the master break the contract, are his expenses in returning to the port of shipment including also general damages.

Claims for wages are "highly favored in admiralty courts," and discharges are not justified for trivial causes, nor for a single offense unless it is an aggravated one. Such causes are continued disobedience or insubordination, rebellious conduct, gross dishonesty, embezzlement or theft, habitual drunkenness, habitually stirring up quarrels, or by his own fault rendering himself incapable of performing duty. The master must receive back a seaman when he has thus been discharged who repents and offers to return to his duty and make satisfaction, unless the offense was of an aggravated character.

This is the general rule, though from its nature there is much room for its application.

=Statute of Frauds.=--Some contracts must be in writing to comply with a statute called the Statute of Frauds, which has been enacted with variations in all the states. One of the most important sections relates to the conveyance of real estate. This requires that the agreement for its sale must be in writing. (See _Agreement for Sale of Land_.)

Another section relates to the sale of goods, wares and merchandise.

This has not been enacted in every state. If the amount is above that mentioned in the statute, thirty to one hundred dollars, there must be a written contract or delivery and acceptance of the goods to const.i.tute a contract. If A sells a bill of goods to B, who declines to receive them, and the contract is wholly verbal, he can shield himself behind this statute wherever it prevails. Many questions therefore arise, what is a delivery and acceptance? A delivery of a key of a building containing the property is sufficient. The delivery of a bill of lading of goods properly indorsed, making entries of the goods sold, pointing them out or identifying them is enough to comply with the statute. Whenever there has been a transfer of possession and control by the seller to the purchaser to which the latter has a.s.sented there has been a sale. Or, more broadly, whenever there has been such action as to show clearly an intention to sell and accept the property the sale is complete. Part payment of the purchase money for personal property is generally regarded as showing such intention.

To a contract for the manufacture of a thing the statute does not apply. Simple as this answer may be, the law soon gets into difficulties in deciding whether a contract is for the making of a thing, or for the thing itself; whether the important element is the skill or labor that is to be expended, or the thing without regard to the process of making. Thus, if a contract is with one to paint a portrait, the statute would not apply, for the skill of the artist is the important thing purchased, and not the canvas, paint, etc., he must use. To a contract for a locomotive the statute would apply. "If the contract states or implies that the thing is to be made by the seller, and also blends together the price of the thing and compensation for work, labor, skill and material, so that they cannot be discriminated, it is not a contract of purchase and sale, but a contract of hiring and service, or a bargain by which one party undertakes to labor in a certain way for the other party," and the statute does not apply to it.

=Statutes of Limitation.=--In all the states statutes have been enacted which provide that if the rights of parties to legal redress are not enforced within a specified period, the courts are closed to them. Thus, in most states a statute provides that a holder or owner of a promissory note who neglects to sue the debtor within six years from its maturity cannot do so afterwards. The note is not absolutely void, though the law presumes it has been paid. As the note is not void, payment may be effected as we shall soon learn.

Suppose one is indebted to a merchant, if the debt is not paid within six years in most states and nothing has happened, the debt in popular language is outlawed, in other words cannot be collected by resort to law. The time begins to run as soon as the debt has accrued; if it be a debt to a merchant, as soon as one has stopped trading with him. To the operation of this rule are some important exceptions. It does not run in favor of a minor, married woman or insane or imprisoned person; or not whenever or wherever they are not capable of contracting. But a disability arising after the statute has begun to run in his favor will not prevent it from running.

The Statute of Limitations generally bars the remedy or right to pursue the debtor in a court of law, it does not extinguish the right or debt, and therefore the right to pursue a debtor may be revived by a new promise to pay. One may ask, is not a debtor a foolish man to acknowledge that he is a debtor after the law has released him from his debt? Yes, from a purely selfish point of view. Nevertheless, the moral obligation remains, and happily all morality has not yet fled from the world. One may ask, is not such a promise void because there is no consideration received for it? No, for the reason that there was a consideration for the original obligation, and this is sufficient to sustain the renewed promise to pay it. In some states the statutes provide that such an acknowledgment to pay a debt after the statute has barred it, must be in writing, and signed by the debtor or his agent. The most general rule is, to remove the bar of the statute, there must be either an express promise to pay, or an acknowledgment of the debt accompanied by an expression of willingness to pay it. To simply acknowledge the existence of a debt is not enough, there must be indicated or expressed a willingness to pay.

A debt may also be revived by part payment. Payment on account of the princ.i.p.al, or payment of interest on the debt will prevent the statute from running against it. Payment to have that effect must be made with reference to the original debt and in such a way as to effect an acknowledgment of it.

While a debtor may always apply a payment to any one or more of different debts he owes his creditor, if he fails to do so the creditor can make the application even to a debt which is already barred by the statute, but his application will not remove the bar to the remainder of the debt. To have that effect the appropriation must be made by the debtor himself.

Statutes of limitation apply to many obligations, and the times or dates at which they become outlawed or outside the scope of legal redress, vary in the different states. In many of them an ordinary book account or negotiable note is outlawed after six years, and cannot be enforced after that time unless the debtor has revived it by a new promise or part payment. A judgment against one usually runs twenty years.

=Telegraph and Telephone.=--Though the business of a telegraph company is public in its nature, it is not a common carrier, and it may therefore set up reasonable regulations for the reception, transmission and delivery of messages. As it is a quasi public corporation, it must extend its services to all that apply therefor and offer to pay the charges. And if refusing it may be compelled to do these things. The company may charge more to one person than to another when the service is unlike, though not enough to amount to an unjust discrimination. The difference in charges must bear some relation to the different services rendered.

A telephone company cannot legally discriminate between two competing telegraph companies by giving one the telephone call word "Telegram"

and thereby depriving the other telegraph company of business. Nor can a telephone company legally charge a higher rental for a telephone to a telegraph company than to any other patron. Nor can a telegraph company discriminate against another in refusing credit which is given to other responsible parties.

A strike may be a sufficient excuse for failure to have sent messages promptly, though not excusing a railroad company for failure to deliver freight as if no strike had happened. A state may impose a penalty on a telegraph company for failure to deliver promptly in the state messages coming from other states. And a state may impose a penalty on a telegraph company for failure to perform its clear common law duty to transmit messages without unreasonable delay, and this statute applies to messages to points outside the state if it relates to delay within the state. A state statute prohibiting telegraph companies from limiting their liability for the transmission of telegrams within the state is const.i.tutional. The state may prohibit a telegraph company from transmitting racetrack news. A telegraph company must transmit a message unless it contains indecent language.

Nor is it liable for libel in transmitting a telegram stating that a person had been bought up.

It is reasonable for a telegraph company to close its office on holidays, except two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and therefore is not liable for delay in transmitting a message because of this delay. The unauthorized writing out and sending of a telegram in another person's name is a forgery.

When a telegram must pa.s.s over two connecting lines the receiving company may require the sender to designate what route the message is to take, and to pay an extra charge for the words indicating such route. A telegraph company is not privileged in transmitting messages, but they should not be made public, except to produce them when legally required in court. Under the New York statutes it is a criminal offense for a telegraph employee to divulge the contents of a telegram to any other person than the addressee, except when it relates to unlawful business. In that case the employee may give information to the public officer who is prosecuting the unlawful sender. It is a criminal offense to open or read a sealed telegram, or to tap a telegraph wire in order to read messages in course of transmission.

In regulating the receipt, transmission and delivery of telegraph messages, the rules differ from those that are to be transmitted within the state from the rules for interstate messages. The rules with respect to the latter are governed by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1910, state messages are governed by the laws of their respective states. By the federal law, therefore, a telegraph company providing one rate for unrepeated messages, and another and higher rate for those repeated, may stipulate for a reasonable limitation of its responsibility when the lower rate is paid. And if the contract provides that for any damage resulting from sending the telegram, the sender must give notice within sixty days, he is bound by this stipulation, and is without redress if he delays to act beyond the time.

=Torts or Wrongs.=--"A tort is an act or omission which unlawfully violates a person's right created by the law, and for which the appropriate remedy is a common law action for damages by the injured person." The right that is violated is private and not public, which marks off a tort from a crime. Again, the wrongful act may be a violation of both a private and public right, in which case both the individual and the state have a remedy against the wrongdoer. Thus A without excuse attacks B and bruises his nose. B has an action to recover damages against him for despoiling his countenance; the state also may proceed against him in a criminal action for his breach of the public peace. Another ill.u.s.tration may be given. A clerk embezzles money from his bank. It sues him and perhaps his bondsmen and recovers the money. Embezzlement, however, is a criminal offense, and the recovery of the money taken does not affect in any way the right of the state to proceed against the embezzler. Indeed, an individual who has been wronged cannot by any rest.i.tution or settlement that he may make with the wrongdoer impair the right of the state to punish him.

Torts or wrongs are very numerous for which the wrongdoer may be held liable. The first to be mentioned is false imprisonment. The law punishes false imprisonment as a crime; the person unlawfully imprisoned also has a civil action for damages. A person is said to be imprisoned "in any case where he is arrested by force and against his will, although it be on the high street or elsewhere and not in a house." Mere words are not an arrest. If an officer says, "I arrest you," and you run away, there is no arrest. But if an officer touches you and takes you into custody there is an arrest even though you run away afterward.

A malicious prosecution is another wrong. A person who brings his action for this wrong must prove four things: first, that the prosecution has terminated in the complainant's favor; second, that it was inst.i.tuted maliciously; third, that it was brought without probable cause; fourth, that it damaged or injured the complainant.

The term malice means something more than "the intentional doing of a wrongful act to the injury of another without legal excuse." It means that the original prosecutor was actuated by some "improper or sinister motive." The term "probable cause" requires explanation.

Nothing is better settled, says one of the courts, than this, that when the person who brings such an action against another "submits his facts to his attorney, who advises they are sufficient, and he acts thereon in good faith, such advice is a defense to an action for malicious prosecution." That such advice may be a good defense a full and honest disclosure of all the facts must be made to him. Such advice will not serve as a screen if based on a fragmentary, incomplete statement of facts.

A very common tort is an a.s.sault and battery. A person who threatens another with immediate personal violence, having the means and opportunity for executing the threat, commits an a.s.sault for which damages may be recovered in a proper action. To raise a club over the head of another and threaten to strike if he speaks, would be an a.s.sault. "Absence of intent," says Burd.i.c.k, "on the part of the defendant to put the plaintiff in fear of bodily harm, is pertinent to the defense that the injury was accidental, or due to a practical joke."

A battery, as distinguished from an a.s.sault, is the inflicting of actual violence on a person, though the degree of violence is immaterial. The least touching of another in anger, or as a trespa.s.ser, is a battery. Forcibly cutting the hair of a person without legal authority, or injuring the clothing on a person, or s.n.a.t.c.hing an article from his hand, or cutting a rope or belt attached to him, or striking a horse on which one is riding, or that is attached to his carriage, or overturning a chair in which he is seated, is a battery; likewise, if the a.s.sailant throws a stone or missile which hits the other, or spits in his face.

There may be a justifiable a.s.sault, the law has long recognized this.

A public officer is justified in using force in performing his duty, so is a private individual in defending himself, his family or his property, or in enforcing lawful discipline at home, in school, on board a ship, or other public conveyance, or in restraining one mentally or physically incapacitated.

Another injury for which the law furnishes redress is that affecting reputation and character. It is true that the damages one may recover, however great, may be an inadequate redress, yet it is the best the law can do. The party injured by a libel or slander brings his action and wins his victory over his enemy, yet the battlefield remains and the scar of the wound inflicted. The issue in an action for defamation is not the character of the plaintiff, but the wrongfulness of the particular statement. Therefore "it is not a defense to a libel or slander that the plaintiff has been guilty of offenses other than those imputed to him, or of offenses of a similar character; and such facts are not competent in mitigation of damages."

As the gist of the tort consists of the injury done to one's reputation, the defamatory statement must have been published. A person has no cause of action against another for defamatory words spoken to him; they must have been heard by a third person. The plaintiff may make out a case by showing that the libel was contained on the back of a postal card, or by other evidence that makes it a matter of reasonable inference that the libelous matter was brought to the actual knowledge of a third person.

A person who voluntarily engages in the interchange of opprobrious epithets and mutual vituperation and abuse has been held to license his antagonist to reply in like manner. "The right to answer a libel by libel is a.n.a.logous to the right to defend one's self against an a.s.sault upon his person. The resistance may be carried to a successful termination, but the means used must be reasonable." Common carriers, news-vendors, proprietors of circulating libraries and others who are merely unconscious vehicles for carrying defamation generally escape liability for its publication.

If the publication of a libel is the result of the joint efforts of several persons, each is responsible for the wrong done to the plaintiff. If A writes a libel, and B prints it and C publishes it, the person wronged may sue all jointly, or either one of them separately. The publication of the same slander by different persons is not a joint tort, it is a distinct wrong done by each slanderer.

There are distinctions between libel and slander that must be now stated. Slander is applied to oral speech or its equivalent, libel to matters expressed in writing or print, pictures, effigies or other visible and permanent forms. Libel is a criminal offense as well as a tort, while the slander of private persons is not a common law crime; but some forms of slander are crimes by statute. Falsely and maliciously to charge one with committing a felony or other indictable offense involving moral turpitude is in some states a crime.

Scandalous matter is not necessary to make a libel. "It is enough if the defendant induces an ill opinion to be held of the plaintiff, or to make him contemptible or ridiculous." Says Burd.i.c.k: "Any censorious or ridiculing writing, picture or sign made intentionally and without just cause and excuse is a libel upon its victim. The degree of censure or ridicule is not material. If the language is such that others, knowing the circ.u.mstances, would reasonably think it defamatory of the person complaining of and injured by it, then it is actionable."

In many cases of libels which affect the victim chiefly or solely in his office or vocation their tendency to cause injury is so clear that proof may be unnecessary. Thus, to import insanity or incompetency to a professional man, or that a public official is dishonest and corrupt is actionable. And when a libelous publication is directed against a cla.s.s or body of persons, for example, the medical staff of a public hospital, any member of the body may maintain an action for the wrong.

A corporation has no character like a natural person to defend, but a defamatory charge which directly affects its credit and injures its business reputation is an actionable one. On the other hand as a corporation must transact its business and perform its duties through natural persons it is now well settled that a corporation is liable in damages for slander, as it is for other torts.

Slanderous words that are actionable have been thus cla.s.sified by the United States Supreme Court: "(1) words falsely spoken of a person which impute to the party the commission of some criminal offense involving moral turpitude, for which the party, if the charge be true, may be indicted and punished; (2) words falsely spoken of a person which impute that the party is infected with some infectious disease, where, if the charge is true, it would exclude him from society; (3) defamatory words falsely spoken of a person which impute to the party unfitness to perform the duties of an office or employment of profit or the want of integrity in the discharge of his duties of such office or employment; (4) defamatory words falsely spoken of a party which prejudice such party in his or her profession or trade."