Opinion of the Court.

schooner, which was sold for $5030, probably about one half her value. The contract was sustained. The court put its decision upon the ground that the case could not be considered as belonging to that class "where the master being upon the high seas or an uninhabited coast, at a distance from all other aid, is absolutely helpless and without power to procure assistance other than that offered, and is compelled in consequence to make a hard and inequitable contract. He was within easy reach of Savannah, where, had he desired to assume the risk for his owners, he could have procured lighters and other tugs to render the service."

The cases in these courts are too numerous for citation, but it is believed that in nearly all of them the distinction is preserved between such contracts as are entered into corruptly, fraudulently, compulsorily or under a clear mistake of facts, and such as merely involve a bad bargain, or are accompanied with a greater or less amount of labor, difficulty or danger than was originally expected.

In the earliest of these, (1799,) Cowell v. The Brothers, Bee's Ad. 136, the libellant very properly relinquished his written agreement and applied to the court for such compensation as his services appeared to deserve, although the court expressed the opinion that the contract would have been held void as having been made under circumstances of great distress. To the same effect is Schutz v. The Nancy, Bee's Ad. 139.

In the case most frequently cited, The Emulous, 1 Sumn. 207, the parties treated the contract at an end on account of unexpected difficulties, but Mr. Justice Story expressed the opinion. that salvage contracts were within control of the court, and that the salvor could not avail himself of the calamities of others to force upon them a contract unjust, oppressive or exorbitant. In the subsequent case of Bearse v. Pigs of Copper, 1 Story, 314, Mr. Justice Story found that no fixed or definite contract for the services existed, although he had previously remarked that it was "one of the few and excepted cases in which there may be a private contract fixing the rate of salvage, which will be, and ought to be, obligatory between

Opinion of the Court.

the parties." We do not think that a salvage contract should be sustained as an exception to the general rule, but rather that it should, prima facie, be enforced, and that it belongs to the defendant to establish the exception. The A. D. Patchin, 1 Blatch. 414; Harley v. 467 Bars Iron, 1 Sawyer, 1; The R. D. Bibber, 33 Fed. Rep. 55; The Wellington, 48 Fed. Rep. 475; The Sir Wm. Armstrong, 53 Fed. Rep. 145; The Alert, 56 Fed. Rep. 721; The Silver Spray's Boilers, Brown's Ad. 349. In The H. D. Bacon, Newberry's Ad. 274, certain salvors, by the use of their machinery and diving bell worth $20,000, raised a badly sunken steamboat in the Mississippi, valued $20,000, in twelve hours. It was held that the contracted price of $4000 was just and reasonable.

In The J. G. Paint, 1 Ben. 545, an agreement to pay a steamboat $5000 for towing a vessel worth $8000, with a cargo of sugar, for twenty-seven hours, was sustained by Judge, subsequently Mr. Justice, Blatchford.

In most of the cases where the contract was held void the facts showed that advantage was taken of an apparently helpless condition to impose upon the master an unconscionable bargain. Brooks v. Steamer Adirondack, 2 Fed. Rep. 387; The Young America, 20 Fed. Rep. 926; The Don Carlos, 47 Fed. Rep. 746.

It must be admitted that some of these courts have exercised a wide discretion in setting aside these contracts, and have laid down the rule that they are to be closely scrutinized, and will not be upheld when it appears that the price agreed upon by the master is unreasonable or exorbitant. We do not undertake to say that these cases were improperly decided upon their peculiar facts, but we are unable to assent to the general proposition laid down in some of them that salvage contracts are within the discretion of the court, and will be set aside in all cases where, after the service is performed, the stipulated compensation appears to be unreasonable. If such were the law, contracts for salvage services would be of no practical value, and salvors would be forced to rely upon the liberality of the courts.

Nor is such a contract objectionable, when prudently en

Opinion of the Court.

tered into, upon the ground that it may result more or less favorably to the parties interested than was anticipated when the contract was made. A person may lawfully contract against contingencies; in fact, the whole law of insurance is based upon the principle that, by the payment of a small sum of money, the insured may indemnify himself against the possibility of a greater loss; or, by the expenditure of a trifling amount to-day in the way of premium, his family may receive a much larger sum in case of his subsequent death. If there were ever any doubt with respect to the validity of such contracts it was long since removed by the universal concurrence of the courts, and an enormous business has grown up all over the world upon the faith of their validity. Indeed, nearly every contract for a special undertaking or job is subject to the contingencies of a rise or fall in the price of labor or materials, to the possibility of strikes, fires, storms, floods, etc., which may render it unexpectedly profitable to one party or the other.

We do not say that to impugn a salvage contract such duress must be shown as would require a court of law to set aside an ordinary contract; but where no such circumstances exist as amount to a moral compulsion, the contract should not be held bad simply because the price agreed to be paid turned out to be much greater than the services were actually worth. The presumptions are in favor of the validity of the contract, The Helen & George, Swabey, 368; The Medina, 2 P. D. 5, although in passing upon the question of compulsion the fact that the contract was made at sea, or under circumstances demanding immediate action, is an important consideration. If when the contract is made the price agreed to be paid appears to be just and reasonable in view of the value of the property at stake, the danger from which it is to be rescued, the risk to the salvors and the salving property, the time and labor probably necessary to effect the salvage, and the contingency of losing all in case of failure, this sum ought not to be reduced by an unexpected success in accomplishing the work, unless the compensation for the work actually done be grossly exorbitant.

Opinion of the Court.

While in England there has been some slight fluctuation of opinion, by the great weight of authority, and particularly of the more recent cases, it is held that if the contract has been fairly entered into, with eyes open to all the facts, and no fraud or compulsion exists, the mere fact that it is a hard bargain, or that the service was attended with greater or less difficulty than was anticipated, will not justify setting it aside. The Mulgrave, 2 Hagg. Ad. 77; The True Blue, 2 W. Rob. 176; The Henry, 15 Jur. 183; S.C. 2 Eng. Law and Eq. 564; The Prinz Heinrich, 13 P. D. 31; The Strathgarry, (1895) P. D. 264.

In The Kingalock, 1 Spinks, 263, an agreement was set aside upon the ground that when the vessel was taken in tow the master concealed the fact that she had been compelled to slip an anchor and cable, and that her foresail was split. Dr. Lushington thought that whether the omission to state those facts would vitiate the agreement depended upon whether they could, with any reasonable probability, affect the services about to be performed. He found that the weather was very tempestuous and the task was made much more difficult for the want of ground tackle, and hence that the agreement was null and void. Per contra, in the case of The Canova, L. R. 1 Ad. 54, he held that as no danger to property was proved, the agreement would not be set aside by reason of the fact that a great part of the crew of the vessel was disabled by illness.

In The Phantom, L. R. 1 Ad. 58, an agreement for eight shillings six pence, as an award for salvage services, was set aside as futile, where it appeared that there was real danger to the salvors in rendering the services. The value of the Phantom was about seven hundred pounds. The case was certainly a very hard one upon the salvors, who appeared to have been ignorant beachmen. But it is somewhat difficult to reconcile that with the prior case of The Firefly, Swabey, 240, where the court distinctly held that it would not set aside a salvage agreement because it seemed to be a hard bargain; or that of The Helen and George, Swabey, 368, unless proved to be grossly exorbitant, or to have been ob

Opinion of the Court.

tained by compulsion or fraud. It was also held in The Waverley, L. R. 3 Ad. 369, that a steamer which contracts to render salvage services for a fixed sum will be held strictly to her agreement, and that it is no ground for extra salvage remuneration that the service was prolonged or became more difficult. See also The Jonge Andries, Swabey, 303.

In the Cargo ex Woosung, 1 P. D. 260, it appeared that the ship was wrecked on a reef in the Red Sea, and was in a position of imminent peril, and subsequently went to pieces. A government vessel was sent to her relief from Aden, and the master of the Woosung, "under circumstances of enormous pressure," agreed to pay half of the proceeds of the cargo saved. The agreement was upheld by the admiralty court (Sir Robert Phillimore), but was set aside by the Court of Appeal upon the ground that the officers of government ships, while entitled to salvage, could not impose terms upon the persons whose property they saved, and refuse to render assistance unless these terms were accepted. The circumstances showed a clear case of compulsion. So, too, in The Medina, 1 P. D. 272; S.C. 2 P. D. 5, where the master of a vessel found passengers of another steamer, (550 pilgrims,) wrecked on a rock in the Red Sea in fine weather, and refused to carry them to Jeddah for a less sum than four thousand pounds, and the master of the wrecked vessel was by such refusal compelled to sign an agreement for that sum, and the service was performed without difficulty and danger, the agreement was held inequitable and set aside. The compulsion in this case was even clearer than in the last.

In The Silesia, 5 P. D. 177, a vessel which with her cargo and freight was valued at £108,000 on a voyage from New York to Hamburg, became disabled about 340 miles from Queenstown. The weather was fine and the sea smooth, but after tossing about for four or five days, she hoisted signals of distress. Another steamer bore down upon her bound from Antwerp to Philadelphia, and demanded £20,000 to take her to Queenstown. The master of the Silesia offered £5000, and finally agreed to pay £15,000, under threat of the other steamer to leave him. The service occupied three days.