12. A Jury Determined That it Was OK to Throw Slaves Overboard to Drown
When the owners of the Zong filed an insurance claim for the murdered slaves, the insurers refused to pay on grounds that the claimants had killed the slaves they now wanted to get paid for. So the Gregson syndicate sued – and won in a jury trial. In Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 3 Doug. KB 232, the jury decided that the macabre expedience of throwing slaves overboard to drown was legal in the circumstances of the case, which meant that the insurers could be made to pay up.
The insurers appealed the trial court’s verdict, and sought to have it set aside and for the case to be retried. In a hearing before the Court of the King’s Bench, the Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, and two other King’s Bench judges reversed the lower court’s decision. The reversal was not made on grounds of humanity, or because the slavers had committed murder. Instead, the court reversed based on newly introduced evidence that showed that the slaves had been thrown overboard because of the ship captain’s negligence.
