Salvage
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 77 U.S. 1 - The Blackwall · 1869Most cited · 380 citing opinions
Salvage is the compensation allowed to persons by whose assistance a ship or her cargo has been saved, in whole or in part, from impending peril on the sea, or in recovering such property from actual loss, as in cases of shipwreck, derelict, or recapture.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Salvage”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Salvage,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Salvage”
Court decisions citing the 7 opinions that defined “Salvage” — 836 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 7 definitions, chronological · 1801–1927
- ORIGINAL
Salvage is a compensation for actual service rendered to the property charged with it. It is demandable of right for vessels saved from pirates or from the enemy. In order, however, to support the demand, two circumstances must concur. 1. The taking must be lawful. 2. There must be a meritorious service rendered to the recaptured.
The allowance of a very ample compensation for those services, (one very much exceeding the mere risk encountered, and labour employed in effecting them), is intended as an inducement to render them, which it is for the public interests, and for the general interests of humanity, to hold forth to those who navigate the ocean.
rationale for liberal award
On this subject there is no precise rule; nor is it, in its nature, reducible to rule. For it must, in every case, depend upon peculiar circumstances, such as peril incurred, labor sustained, value decreed, &c. all of which must be estimated and weighed by the Court that awards the salvage. As far as our enquiries extend, when a proportion of the thing saved has been awarded, a half has been the maximum, and an eighth the minimum.
no precise rule
it is equally clear that they cannot repudiate their contract, and libel the vessel for salvage
The right to salvage may arise out of an actual contract, but it does not necessarily do so. It is a legal liability arising out of the fact that property has been saved; that the owner of the property, who has had the benefit of it, shall make remuneration to those who have conferred the benefit upon him, notwithstanding that he has not entered into any contract on the subject.
legal liability
her request for or express acceptance of the service is not always essential to the validity of the claim. It is enough if, under the circumstances, any prudent man would have accepted
implied acceptance