United States v. Carroll Towing Co.

Connors Co. (plaintiff) owned the Anna C, a barge leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. On January 3, 1944, the barge was moored in New York Harbor and was carrying flour owned by the United States (plaintiff). Connors’s bargee, the employee tasked with watching the barge, went ashore in the late afternoon on January 3, leaving the barge unattended for over 21 hours. During that time, while attempting to move another barge in the harbor, the harbormaster and a deckhand on a tugboat owned by Carroll Towing Co. (Carroll) (defendant) readjusted the lines holding the Anna C. They were negligent in resecuring the Anna C, and as a result, the Anna C subsequently broke free during the afternoon of January 4 and drifted up against a tanker. The tanker’s propeller tore a hole in the Anna C, and she sank, along with all her cargo. Connors and the United States sued Carroll for damages. Among other things, Connors sought to recover the value of the sunken Anna C. Carroll sought to reduce its damages liability by arguing that Connors was contributorily negligent. Specifically, Carroll claimed that had Connors’s bargee not left the Anna C unattended for an extended period, the damage to the barge would have been discovered more quickly, and both she and her cargo could have been saved. The trial court concluded that Connors was not contributorily negligent and assessed damages against Carroll accordingly. Carroll appealed. [Editor’s Note: This casebook states that the trial court found Connors partly responsible for the loss of the cargo and the barge because of Connors’s failure to have a custodian on board.]