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2 Denio 625

Heaney v. Heeney

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1846

New York Supreme Court · decided 1846-05-15

Action on the case, tried at the Kings circuit in December, 1842, before Kent, late C. Judge. The suit was brought to recover the value of a vessel called a barque, belonging to the plaintiffs, which, as Was alleged, was lying fastened to a dock in the East river in the city of Brooklyn, in July, 1842, when the defendants severed the fastenings and cast her loose, by reason of which she floated off with the tide and was injured and rendered worthless.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1846-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1909

201846185018601870188018901900decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court, Jewett, J.

¶1I am of opinion that the charge to the jury is sustained by the principle that there is a license implied by law to all persons navigating public waters, to occupy such erections as the dock in question in the manner and for the purposes contemplated by the owner, and for which they are constructed; and that it was not necessary for the plaintiffs in this case to make an express application to the owner for permission to do so. The keeping such dock, like keeping an inn, confers a general -licence to all persons to occupy it for lawful purposes. The mind of the owner in such cases •is presumed to assent to such acts.

¶2The plaintiffs’ occupancy being lawful, the defendants could not terminate it by setting their vessel adrift so as to endanger its safety, until they had put the plaintiffs in fault. That might have been done by a request to remove the vessel followed by neglect or refusal on their part to comply with it, within such time as under the circumstances would be reasonable. If the plaintiffs’ entry into the dock had been tortious, then indeed the defendants had a right to cut loose'their vessel and to remove it from their premises, doing no unnecessary damage in order to the enjoyment of their rights.

¶3The injury complained of was voluntary, and if wrongful,^ die plaintiffs were under no obligation legal or moral, to take any steps to mitigate the consequences to the defendants. A new trial must be denied.

¶4New trial denied.

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