A medium, a mean proportion. In old English law. A service by horse or carriage, anciently due by a tenant to his lord. Cowell. A labor or service performed with working cattle, horses, or oxen, or with wagons and carriages. Spelman. Stubble, or remainder of straw and grass left in corn fields after harvest. In Kent it is called “gratten,” and in other parts “roughings.” In maritime law. Loss or damage accidentally happening to a vessel or to its cargo during a voyage. Also a small duty paid to masters of ships, when goods are sent in another man’s ship, for their care of the goods, over and above the freight. In marine insurance. Where loss or damage occurs to a vessel or Its cargo at sea, average is the adjustment and apportionment of such loss between the owner, the freight, and the cargo, in proportion to their respective interests and losses, in order that one may not suffer the whole loss, but each contribute ratably. It is of the following kinds: General average (also called “gross”) consists of expense purposely incurred, sacrifice made, or damage sustained for the common safety of the vessel, freight, and cargo, or the two of them, at risk, and is to be contributed for by the several interests in the proportion of their respective values exposed to the common danger, and ultimately surviving, including the amount of expense, sacrifice, or damage so incurred in the contributory value. 2 Phil. Ins. f 1269 et seq. 2 Steph. Comm. 179; Padelford v. Board man, 4 Mass. 548. Particular average is a loss happening to the ship, freight, or cargo which is not to be shared by contribution among all those interested, but must be borne by the owner of the subject to which it occurs. It is thus called in contradistinction to general average. Bargett v. Insurance Co., 3 Bosw. (N. Y.) 395. Petty average. In maritime law. A term used to denote such charges and disbursements as, according to occurrences and the custom of every place, the master necessarily furnishes for the benefit of the ship and cargo, either at the place of loading or unloading, or on the voyage; such as the hire of a pilot for conducting a vessel from one place to another, towage, light money, beaconage, anchorage, bridge toll, quarantine and such like. Park, Ins. 100. The particulars belonging to this head depend, however, entirely upon usage. Abb. Ship. 404. Simple average. Particular average, (q. v.) Average charges. “Average charges for toll and transportation” are understood to mean, and do mean, charges made at a mean rate, obtained by dividing the entire receipts for toll and transportation by the whole quantity of tonnage carried, reduced to a common standard of tons moved one mile. Hersh v. Railway Co., 74 Pa. 190. Average prices. Such as are computed on all the prices of any articles sold within a certain period or district. Gross average. In maritime law. A contribution made by the owners of a ship, its cargo, and the freight, towards the loss sustained by the voluntary and necessary sacrifice of property for the common safety, in proportion to their respective interests. More commonly called “general average,” (q. v.) See 3 Kent, Comm. 232; 2 Steph. Comm. 179. Wilson v. Cross, 33 Cal. 69.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A term used in commerce to signify a contribution made by the owners of the ship, freight and goods, on board, in proportion to their respective interests, towards any particular loss or expense sustained for the general safety of the ship and cargo; to the end that the particular loser may not be a greater sufferer than the owner of the ship and the other owners of goods on board. 2. Average is called general or gross average, because it falls generally upon the whole or gross amount of the ship, freight and cargo; and also to distinguish it from what is often though improperly termed particular average, but which in truth means a particular or partial, and not a general loss; or has no affinity to average properly so called. Besides these there are other small charges, called petty or accustomed averages; such as pilotage, towage, light-money, beaconage, anchorage, bridge toll, quarantine, river charges, signals, instructions, castle money, pier money, digging the ship out of the ice, and the like. 3. A contribution upon general average can only be claimed in cases where, upon as much deliberate on and consultation between the captain and his officers as the occasion will admit of, it appears that the sacrifice at the time it was made, was absolutely and indispensably necessary for the preservation of the ship and cargo. To entitle the owner of the goods to an average contribution, the loss must evidently conduce to the preservation of the ship and the rest of the cargo; and it must appear that the ship and the rest of the cargo were in fact saved.