In Mayer v. The Venelia, Her Tackle Etc., Eddes Master, the Supreme Court of the United States was asked to decide whether a ship captain had breached his duty of care when he failed to provide adequate provisions for his crew during a voyage from New York City to San Francisco. The plaintiff argued that the captain's negligence caused him physical and mental suffering due to inadequate food and water supplies on board. In its decision, the court held that while it is true that captains have an obligation under maritime law to provide their crews with sufficient sustenance for their journey, they are not liable if there were unforeseen circumstances beyond their control which prevented them from doing so. Furthermore, in this case specifically, since all reasonable efforts had been made by both parties involved in order to ensure safe passage across such a long distance voyage at sea without any foreseeable problems arising along the way; no liability could be attributed solely upon either party as far as providing proper sustenance was concerned.

Justice McLean delivered the dissenting opinion in Mayer v. The Venelia, Her Tackle Etc., Eddes Master. He argued that a contract between two parties should be enforced according to its terms and that the majority's decision was contrary to this principle of law. McLean reasoned that when an agreement is made, it creates rights for both parties which cannot be disregarded by either party without consequence or liability for breach of contract. Furthermore, he noted that if one party breaches their obligations under a contract then they must bear any damages resulting from such breach regardless of whether those damages were foreseeable at the time of contracting or not. In conclusion, Justice McLean held that since there had been no evidence presented demonstrating fraud on behalf of either party in entering into the agreement at issue here then it should have been enforced as written and thus reversed the lower court's ruling against Mayer and remanded back with instructions to enter judgment in his favor instead.