IF the national character of property captured and brought in
for adjudication appears ambiguous or neutral and no claim is
interposed, the cause is postponed for a year and a day after the
prize proceedings are commenced, and if no claimant appears within
that time, the property is condemned to the captors.
In prize causes, this Court has an appellate jurisdiction only,
and a claim cannot be originally interposed here; but where the
court below had proceeded to adjudication before the lapse of a
year and a day, the cause was remanded to that court with
directions to allow a claim to be filed therein and the libel to be
amended.
The libel filed by the captors in this case in the district
court alleged that the goods for which condemnation was sought were
captured and taken out of a Spanish vessel. No claim was filed for
the goods in either of the courts below. But upon the hearing, the
district court dismissed the libel upon the ground that the
property, to whomsoever belonging, was protected by the 15th
article
Page 14 U. S. 299
of the treaty of 1795 with Spain, by which free ships make free
goods, and this decree was affirmed upon the same principle in the
circuit court. The captors brought the cause by appeal to this
Court, and a motion was made by Winder in behalf of Elry Herbert,
an asserted claimant, to be admitted to file a claim in this
Court.
STORY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.
We have considered this question with a view to the general
rules of practice. Whenever a prize is brought to adjudication in
the admiralty, if, upon the hearing of the cause upon the ship's
papers and the evidence taken in preparatory, the property appears
to belong to enemies, it is immediately condemned. If its national
character appear doubtful or even neutral and no claim is
interposed, the court does not proceed to a final decree, but the
cause is postponed with a view to enable any person having title to
assert it within a reasonable time before the court. This
reasonable time has been, by the general usage of nations, fixed to
a year and a day after the institution of the prize proceedings,
and if no claim be interposed within that period, the property is
deemed to be abandoned and is condemned to the captors for
contumacy and default of the supposed owner. In the present case,
the prescribed period had not elapsed at the time when the district
court proceeded to decree a dismissal of the libel. A claim cannot,
by the practice of this Court, be for the first time interposed
here. In prize causes, this Court can exercise only an appellate
jurisdiction and between
Page 14 U. S. 300
parties who have litigated in the court below. We are all
therefore of opinion that this cause ought to be remanded to the
circuit court with directions to allow the claim to be filed in
that court and also to allow the libel to be amended so as to
conform to the general allegation of prize, and enable the captors
to obtain condemnation of the property if the asserted claim shall
not be sustained and the property shall not appear entitled to the
protection of the Spanish treaty.
Case remanded.