by a British Vice-Admiralty Court, is
sufficient from which to presume that
the ship had been engaged in some
illegal transaction. A neutral meet-
ing by an agreement a British vessel
for the purpose of receiving gun-
powder and arms is illegal, even
though the latter should have had a
license to export them for the benefit
of trade,
661

INTEREST INSURABLE IN
GOODS AND PROPERTY, &c.

See USAGE.

1. Some things must be specially
named in the policy. Horses and
other live animals, &c.,
14

2. Bottomry and respondentia in-
terest must be so specially stated in
the policy,

15

3. Special interests in goods may
be recovered under the term "goods"
in the printed policy,
17

4. And generally it is necessary to
state accurately the subject-matter of
the insurance, but it is not essential
to state the nature of the interest, 17

5. Where the consignee of goods
pledges the bill of lading with another
person as a security for advances made
by him, and upon an agreement that
the consignee shall make an insurance
on the goods for the benefit of the
pledgee, and deposit the policy with
him, the pledgee may sue on the
policy in his own name,

35

6. At common law, a person might
insure without having any interest, 33
7. It "is settled that the merchant
need only prove some interest to take
it out of 19 Geo. 2." Lord Mansfield,
37, 39

8. Profits expected to be made, are
a good insurable interest,
38

9. And where the expected profit
is valued in the policy, this does not
make it a "wager" policy; the plain-
tiff must prove some value, but it is
not necessary to go into the whole, 39

10. The distinction between a va-

Dutch ships detained or brought into
the British ports, and dispose of them
according to directions from the Privy
Council, may insure them in their
own names after seizure at sea on
their voyage to England,
55

19. The King has an undoubted in-
surable interest in the ships and cargo
taken possession of under the autho-
56
rity of the statute,

20. And where an insurance is made
for the benefit of his Majesty without
his knowledge, his Majesty may ratify
it, and the insurance will enure to
his benefit,
60

21. The above rule applies to any

25. If goods be consigned to a
merchant and he makes an insurance
upon them when he knows they have
been despatched, and then a "stoppage
in transitu" takes place, and then a
loss, the assured cannot sue, for he
had lost his right in his interest before
the loss happened,
71

26. Where the Courts see that on
the face of the policy there is no con-
tract of indemnity between the parties,
but only a gaming transaction, they
never hesitate in declaring the policy
void,
72
27. Where by the express terms of
a charter-party, the shipowner makes
a stipulation with the freighter, that
part of the freight shall be paid in ad-
vance, the freighter has an insurable
interest in that advance: but a mere
loan for the use of the ship, gives him
no insurable interest,
74

28. The underwriters on a policy

HHH

lead to the inquiry respecting the dis-
tinction between total and average
losses,
354
2. The doctrine of total losses" on
goods" as distinguished from average
losses explained,

355

3. Whether a loss "on goods" be
total or average in its nature must
depend upon general principles, 357

4. The object of the policy is to
obtain an indemnity for any loss the
assured may sustain by the goods
being prevented, by the perils of the
sea, from arriving in safety at their
place of destination,
357

5. Whether, upon such an event,
the loss is total or average depends
upon circumstances; but the exist-
ence of the goods, or any part of them
in specie, is neither a conclusive nor
in many cases a material circum-
stance to that question,
357, 358

6. If the goods be of an imperish-
able nature, if the assured become
possessed of them, and have an oppor-
tunity of sending them to their desti-
nation, the mere retardation of their
arrival may be of no prejudice to them,
more than the expense of reshipment.
In such a case the loss can be but an
average loss, even though the assured
elect to sell them where they have
been landed,
358

7. But if the goods once damaged
by the perils of the sea, are, by reason
of that damage, in such a state, though
the species may not be utterly de-
stroyed, that they cannot be reshipped
into the same or any other vessel; if
that before the termination of the ori-
ginal voyage the species itself would
disappear, and the goods assume a
new form, losing all their original
character; if, though imperishable,
they are in the hands of strangers,
not under the control of the assured,
if by any circumstance over which he
has no control, they can never, or in
any assignable period, be brought to
their original destination; in any of
these cases, the circumstance of their
being in specie at that forced deter-

8. When a total loss has thus taken
place before the termination of the in-
sured voyage, with a salvage of some
portion of the subject insured which
has been converted into money, the
assured may recover as for a total loss
without an abandonment, 360, 366
9. Some account of the origin and
history of abandonment,
361

10. The history of our own laws
furnishes few, if any, illustrations on
the subject before the time of Lord
Mansfield; and that great Judge, in
laying down the rules and principles in
the leading cases on this subject, was
obliged to resort to the aid of foreign
codes and to the opinions of foreign
jurists, for his guide and information,

12. When a policy of assurance
was considered in the nature of a
wager, the notion of abandonment was
never entertained or thought of, 361

13. When assurances became con-
tracts of indemnity, the obligation of
abandonment became the necessary
consequence of confining the contract
to that object,
362

14. In some foreign codes aban-
donment was imperative, and such
formerly was the law in France, by
the ordinances of Louis XIV. in 1681.
But now, by the code of commerce,
abandonment is confined to those ef-
fects which are the object of the as-
surance and the risk,
363

15. But now the law relating to
marine insurances is quite settled in
this country, and the nature and prin-
ciple of the law of abandonment is
quite established by decisions in our
courts of justice,
364

16. The assurer engages that the

24. If the voyage be so defeated
as not to be worth further pursuit,
the assured may abandon,
382

25. But it is repugnant on a con-
tract of indemnity to recover for a
total loss, when the event has de-
cided that an average loss only has
been sustained,
383

26. If the ship be recovered after
a long detention, it is not a total loss
even on a wager policy,
384
27. The assured shall not be al-
lowed to abandon, either to avail him-
self of having overvalued, or of the
market below the invoice price, 386

28. The assured can recover only
an indemnity, according to the nature
of his case, at the time of bringing
the action, or at the time of his offer
to abandon,

387

29. The effect of abandonment is,
that if the offer turns out to have been
properly made upon the supposed
facts which turns out to be true, the

assured has put himself in a condition
to insist on his abandonment, 390

30. The abandonment must be
viewed with regard to the ultimate
state of facts appearing before action
brought,
393

31. In deciding the question whether
a party not insured would prefer giving
up
the adventure and repairing a ship
at an enormous price-it is proper
that the jury should take into their
consideration the national character of
the ship which materially affects her
value,

399
32. Where the defendant had paid
48%. into Court, and the jury found
that there was only 48. per cent.
damage. It was held to be only an
average loss; though, when she ar-
rived at her port she was not worth
repairing,
402

33. Where a ship is obliged, by
sea-damage to put back into port, and
cannot be repaired there, and no other
vessel could be obtained, and the cargo
is much damaged, this is a total loss,

36. A ship being wrecked was sold
by the owner, and soon after got off
by the purchaser, though at a great
expense. The owner cannot treat
this as a total loss, if the ship could
have been repaired so as to have sailed
home in ballast, or with some sort of
a cargo,
409

37. In what cases abandonment
must be given,

411

38. Where the thing insured sub-
sists in specie, and there is some
chance of recovery, there must be an
abandonment,
39. Where a ship is so much in-

412

jured by the perils of the sea, that she
cannot be repaired at all, except at an
expense exceeding her value when
repaired, the assured may recover
without an abandonment,
412

40. The assured cannot abandon
on account of the port of destination
being shut against the ships of the
nation to which the ships belong, 414

41. If a ship insured to a foreign
port, learning in the course of her
voyage that an embargo is laid on the
ships of her nation, wait at a place as
near as she safely can till the embargo
is removed, the goods on board in-
sured, will in the meantime be pro-
tected by the policy,
417
42. But if instead of doing so, she
sails back to her port of outfit, and is
lost, she will be considered to have
abandoned her voyage, and the un-
derwriters are discharged,

417

43. Where a loss was attributable
merely to the fear of a hostile em-
bargo, at the port of destination, held
not to be a loss by the detention or
arrest of kings,

417

44. The effect of abandonment of
the ship to the underwriters, so as to
pass to them the ship's future earnings
or freight,
420, 427
45. And where there are separate
insurances on the ship and freight,
and the owner abandons to the under-
writers both of ship and freight, the
abandonee of the ship has a right of
the after accruing freight, indepen-
dently of the abandonee of freight,
who may have his own remedy against
the owners, where he had insured
their freight, which being lost, was
paid by the underwriters on freight,
with an agreement that he was to
have the benefit of the abandonment
to him of the freight to be earned,

427, 428, 429
46. Freight follows as an incident
to the property in the ship, 427

47. The abandonee of a ship has
all the rights of the shipowner cast
upon him,
428

48. Within what time abandon-

50. The assured by the law in
England must make his election
speedily. He cannot lie by and treat
the loss as average, and afterwards
abandon to the underwriters, 432

51. So an underwriter is bound to
say, within a reasonable time after
notice of abandonment, whether he
will accept it or not,
433

52. An abandonment may be by
parol, but it should be certain; the
word 'abandon' ought to be used, 433

II. AVERAGE LOSSES.

1. In an average loss the thing in-
sured is supposed to exist in specie,
but there is a possibility, however
remote, of its arriving at its destina-
tion, or at least of its value being in
some way affected by the means which
may be adopted for the recovery or
preservation of it,
435

2. Whether a loss be total or
average in its nature, must depend
upon general principles,

436

3. If the goods be of an imperish-
able nature, if the assured become
possessed of them, or can have the
control of them, if they have an op-
portunity of sending them to their
destination, the mere retardation of
their arrival may be no prejudice to
them, except the expense of reship-
ment in another vessel,
436

4. And where the goods consisted
of copper which was wholly unin-
jured, and of iron, which was partially
damaged, and the assured had pos-
session of them, and the ship was
capable of repair, and might have pro-
secuted the voyage-this was held to
be an average loss,

437

5. And where some rice had arrived
at its destination, and though damaged,