donado, at the mouth of the Plate, was immediately ordered off If the captain of a ship, on hearing that there is an embargo laid on ships at the port of destination, waits at some place near thereto till the embargo be removed, he will be protected by the policy; but if he might put into a friendly port in the neighbourhood, and instead of doing so sails back to the port of outfit and is lost, he will be considered as having abandoned the voyage insured, and the underwriters will be discharged b. a specific voyage, a deviation cannot he justified. SECTION XVII. ILLEGAL VOYAGE. It may be laid down as a general rule that no insurance can be legally effected upon a voyage undertaken contrary to the laws of this kingdom or those of its dependencies, or to the law of nations. Therefore, if the voyage or the traffic in which the ship is engaged be illegal, an insurance effected thereupon is void, and cannot be enforced ; and it is immaterial whether the insurer was apprized of the illegality of the voyage, or not a If there be anything illegal in the transaction during any part of the time that the policy attached, the policy is void; as, if a ship be insured "at and from A. to B., and there be any illegality in the traffic during her stay at A., the assured cannot recover on the policy for a loss happening between A. and B. a Parkin v. Tunno, 11 East, 22. 2 Camp. 59. Nielson v. De la Cour, 2 Esp. 619. ⚫ Blackenhagen r. London As surance Company, 1 Camp. 454. C See ante, 1132. d Marsh. 181. An insur ance can not be effected upon traffic in a voyage or contravention of the laws of this kingdom. Trade carried on in violation of But in order to render the insurance illegal, the illegality should exist during the course of the voyage insured; therefore an insurance on a ship for a particular voyage may be legal, though she may have done some act in a former voyage for which she was liable to seizure; and goods may be insured though purchased with the proceeds of a former illegal cargo". But if there be any illegality in the commencement of an integral voyage, and an insurance be effected on the latter part of the voyage, which taken by itself would be legal, still the assured cannot recover on the policy b. The stat. 47 Geo. III. c. 2. legalized, from September 17, 1806, the trading to any place which then was, or should thereafter be, under the dominion of his majesty. Buenos Ayres was taken by his majesty's troops in the preceding year, and retaken on the 12th of August, 1806; held, that an adventure to Buenos Ayres, commencing in the first week of September, 1806, was illegal, and the policy on it void c. Trade carried on in violation of a blockade or embargo, of the provisions of a treaty, or of a royal proclamation, is illegal, a blockade, and a policy effected on the ships, goods, or freight is void d. If is illegal. a ship, without notice of a blockade, proceeds to a port which is blockaded, and be captured, the policy is not thereby vitiated; and a notification of the blockade in the gazette is not conclusive of the knowledge of the insured of that fact, "although," said Lord Tenterden, C. J.," the blockading nation may, by the law of nations, be allowed to consider its notification of a blockade as a notice thereof to all the subjects of the nation to which the notification has been made, yet such rule cannot be applied to the case of insurance; knowledge, like other matters, must become a question of fact for the decision and judgment of a jury." Therefore, when a ship sailed for a foreign port, and notice afterwards appeared in the gazette that such port was blockaded; the ship having been captured, it a Bird v. с 227. Toulmin v. Anderson, 1 Taunt. d Delmada v. Motteux, Park, 357. 1 T. R. 85. The Hurtige, 3 Rob. Adm. Rep. 324. Jones v. Tobias, 1 Id. 329. e Per Lord Tenterden, C. J., in Harratt v. Wise, 9 B. & C. 717. was held to be a question of fact for the jury, in an action on the policy, whether the captain knew of the blockade or not a If after notice of a blockade a policy is effected to the port that is blockaded, and the ship sails for the purpose of enquiring whether the blockade is continued, and is captured, the policy is not thereby vitiated, for the voyage is not illegal in its inception b. crew. The Navigation Act, 6 Geo. IV. c. 109, requires that certain Foreign ships shall be navigated by a crew of which three parts are British; an exemption is given if a due proportion of such seamen cannot be procured in any foreign port; or if the proportion be destroyed during the voyage by any unavoidable circumstance, and the master bring a certificate of the facts from a British consul, or prove the facts to the satisfaction of the comptroller of the customs in a British port; held, that a ship which lost her proportion of British seamen, by death, at Sierra Leone, and could not replace them except by foreigners, was within the exemption, and the vessel having been lost on her voyage home with an over proportion of foreign hands, the insured was not precluded from recovering from the underwriters, though he had not the certificate required by the act, the circumstances of excuse having been satisfactorily proved to a jury at the trial o. By the common law, no British subject can legally trade with the enemy's country, and the property engaged is subject to confiscation in a court of prize. Every contract of insurance, therefore, effected on the property of an enemy, or on goods purchased even by a British subject in an enemy's country, is void d. But a license from the crown will legalize a trading with the enemy, and protect the exportation of goods which is prohibited by proclamation; and an insurance may be legally effected on commerce which is protected by such li cense. Licenses to trade with an enemy are to be construed liberally, a Id. b Naylor v. Taylor, 9 B. & C. 718. Dalgleish v. Hodgson, 7 Bing. 5 M. & P. 407. 495. C Stuart v. Powel, 1 B. & Ad. 266. Potts v. Bell, 8 T. R. 548. Trading enemy without a with an license is illegal. Construction of licenses. and not, like grants of property from the crown, strictly; and therefore, although the agent, in obtaining the license, did not represent to the privy council that he applied on behalf of an hostile trader, the concealment did not vacate the license, or vitiate the policy a. So, a misdescription of a party applying to the crown for a license to trade with an enemy, if made without fraud, does not vacate the license, or vitiate a policy effected upon it. As where he was described to be " of London, merchant:" whereas he was resident at the time at Heligoland, from whence he passed into Germany, intending to return immediately, and settle in London ". A license to F. H. of London, merchant, on behalf of himself and other British or neutral merchants, to import a cargo from certain limits, within which an enemy's port is situate, in any vessel bearing any flag except the French, will protect a ship trading from that port, in which ship F. H. and an alien enemy are jointly interested; and therefore such interest was held insurable c. So, under a license to British brokers resident here, that a ship bearing any flag may import from an enemy's country, to whomsoever the property may appear to belong; three British subjects not named in the license, one of whom resides in an hostile country, may import from another hostile country to this d. So a license to H. S., a British merchant, that a ship may go to a hostile port, and bring home a cargo of goods, authorizes the importation of such goods, being the property of an alien enemy, a subject of that hostile country, and therefore authorizes him to insure and enforce his contract of insurance in our courts e. Where a license is granted for a voyage to an hostile country, to continue in force till a given day, if the voyage is bona fide begun before that day, it continues to be protected by the license, though delayed beyond the day by stress of weather, or other accident, over which the assured have no control a. If a vessel imports under a license a cargo of goods from an hostile country, and also certain other goods not licensed, the insurance on the licensed goods is not thereby vitiated b. Therefore, where a quantity of gunpowder was exported, for a part of which only a license had been obtained; it was held, that the exportation of the excess only was illegal; and that an insurance effected on the whole cargo, might be supported as to so much for which the license was obtained, whether the property of the same or of different persons c. An importation from an hostile port by an alien enemy there resident, may be legalized by a license to R., on behalf of a British merchant, for a ship not named; but in order so to legalize it, it is not sufficient that the ship's name should be indorsed at the hostile port of loading on the license; the assured must also prove by what authority he applies thelicense so obtained to that adventure 4. But a license to trade to an enemy's country, granted to one set of British merchants, cannot be used to cover a trading by other British merchants, without connecting them together; as by showing that the parties licensed were agents at the time for the others ©. tion will presenta 1.-Misrepresentation.] A FALSE representation by the in- A false resured or his agent, whether in writing or by parol, respecting any fact or circumstance, the belief of which may reasonably be supposed to influence the insurer in undertaking the risk, or Groning v. Crockett, 3 Camp. 83. Skiffin t. Glover, 4 Taunt. 717. Effurth v. Smith, 5 Taunt. 329. Pieschell v. Allnut, and Same v. Lavie, 4 Taunt. 792. Keir v. Andraade, 2 Marsh. 196. 6 Taunt. 498. d Robinson v. Morris, 5 Taunt. 720. e Busk v. Bell, 16 East, 3. avoid the policy. |