PELTON STEAMSHIP COMPANY, LTD. v. PORT OF LONDON AUTHORITY.

(1939) 63 Ll L Rep 194

ADMIRALTY DIVISION.

Before Sir Boyd Merriman (President), sitting with Captain A. H. Ryley and Captain C. St. G. Glasson, Elder Brethren of Trinity House.

Negligence - Dock authority - Collision between plaintiffs' steamship Spero and wall of lock between East India Dock Basin and Import Dock-Spero locked into Basin and straightened up to enter Import lock - Difference in levels of Basin and Import Dock - Orders given by defendants' dock-master to go ahead - Allegation by plaintiffs that sluices were negligently opened by defendants' servants while the Spero was making her way into the Import lock, causing her to sheer, and that in spite of subsequent helm and engine action she collided with the lock wall, sustaining damage - Contention by defendants that the sluices were not opened at the material time; that it was not negligent to open them, in that the dam stream resulting thereby would not affect the heading of the Spero; alternatively, that the sole or a contributory cause of the damage was the excessive speed of the Spero in making her way across the Basin - Evidence given by plaintiffs of engine action taken to avert collision, which defendants put forward as a contributory cause of the collision - Onus of proof.