11. Distinction Between General and Particular Average.—
The former is a partial loss, voluntarily incurred for common safety, and recompensed by all benefited thereby; the latter is a partial loss involuntarily caused, which must be borne by the party on whom it falls. One of the most approved definitions of general average is,—"All loss which arises in consequence of extraordinary sacrifices made, or expenses, incurred, for the preservation of the ship and cargo, comes within general average, and must be borne proportionately by all who are interested."
In the case of Barnard v. Adams, 10 How. (U. S.) 270, the ingredients of general salvage were thus stated:
In order to constitute a case for general average, three things must concur:
1st. A common danger; a danger in which the ship, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently "inevitable," except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder.
2nd. There must be a voluntary jettison, jactus, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole.
3rd. This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful.