technical total loss
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 25 U.S. 383 - The Columbian Insurance Company v. Catlett · 1827Most cited · 40 citing opinions
It was a perishable cargo, and much injured by the accident, though it does not appear to be to the amount of one half its value; and it was liable to still farther deterioration. There was a necessity, then, for an immediate sale at Cape Haytien, and the farther prosecution of the voyage with that ship, or that cargo, became impracticable. It was completely frustrated. Under such circumstances... it was a clear case of a technical total loss, on account of the breaking up of the voyage.
How the Supreme Court has restated “technical total loss”
Each Supreme Court definition of “technical total loss,” 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 “technical total loss”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “technical total loss” — 57 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 3 definitions, chronological · 1808–1827
- ORIGINAL
A technical total loss originates in the danger of a real total loss. The court cannot suppose such a danger to have existed after a final sentence of acquittal, unless some order of court relative to a reconsideration could be shown, or it should appear that some other delays were interposed by the court which had pronounced the sentence, or by the sovereign of the captor.
terminated by decree of restitution
In cases of this sort, where a technical total loss is asserted as a ground of recovery, it is not sufficient that the voyage has been entirely frustrated and lost; but the loss must be occasioned by some peril actually insured against. The peril must act directly, and not circuitously, upon the subject of the insurance. It must be an immediate peril, and the loss the proper consequence of it; and it is not sufficient that the voyage be abandoned, for fear of the operation of the peril.
peril must act directly