Where the admiralty court decreed that a vessel should pay
salvage to the amount of one-fifth of her value, and that value was
shown to be $2,600, an appeal to this Court would not lie, for want
of jurisdiction.
It is the amount of salvage, and not of the vessel, which tests
the jurisdiction, the salvage only being in controversy.
The master could not properly represent without special
authority the consignees of the cargo who had received their
respective consignments before the filing of the libel. They lived
in the place where the court was held, and ought to have
represented their own interests.
The master therefore, cannot appear for them all conjointly, and
in this case the amount of salvage to be paid by the largest
consignee would be only $1,136.80. Neither the salvage upon the
vessel or cargo, therefore, is sufficient in amount to bring the
case within the jurisdiction of this Court.
This was a libel filed on 22 December, 1848, by Henry Place,
master of the steamship
Globe, for himself and the other
owners of the ship, against the schooner
Lucy Ann and
cargo for salvage.
The return of the marshal to the writ of seizure was as
follows:
"Received this writ the 22 December, 1848, and executed the same
day by seizing the schooner
Lucy Ann, her tackle, apparel,
and furniture, and on the same day seized certain goods, wares, and
merchandise as per bills and bills of lading hereto attached and
marked No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, as furnished by the owners and
consignees of said goods, which said goods I left in the possession
of the consignees, first taking their receipts to be delivered when
called for."
"JAMES H. COCKE,
Marshal"
"By H. B. MARTIN,
D. Marshal"
Page 52 U. S. 523
On 29 December, 1848, Spear intervened, claiming as follows:
"To the Honorable John C. Watrous, Judge of the District Court
of the United States within and for the District of Texas."
"And Arthur Spear, of the State of Maine, intervening for his
interest in the schooner Lucy Ann, as well as for the other owners
of said schooner and for the owners and consignees of the cargo
thereof, and for all whom it may concern; this respondent, the said
Arthur Spear, being master of said schooner, and also owner of an
interest of about one-fourth therein, appears before this Honorable
Court and claims the said schooner and her said cargo, and for
answer to the libel and complaint of Henry Place, of New Orleans,
in the State of Louisiana, against the schooner
Lucy Ann,
her tackle, apparel, and furniture, and all and singular the goods,
wares, and merchandises now or late on board of said schooner, in a
cause of salvage, civil and maritime, alleges and articulately
propounds, as follows,"
&c.
The case having been dismissed by this Court for the want of
jurisdiction, it is not necessary to state the circumstances which
gave rise to the claim for salvage.
On 3 January, 1849, Norman Hurd and E. P. Hunt were ordered by
the court to appraise the schooner, her tackle, apparel, and
furniture, and also the cargo, who appraised the vessel &c., at
$2,600 and the cargo at $21,325.73, divided amongst several
different owners or consignees as follows:
J. S. Vedder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 5,698.00
J. K. Brown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.89
Perry & Flint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.42
Perry & Flint, for Leyles & Co. . . . . . . 6.07
Sydnor & Bone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,113.34
Rice, Adams & Co., for acc. Sampson & Co. . 615.21
Rice, Adams & Co., for their own acc. . . . 4,566.11
Rice, Adams & Co., for Rice & Nichols. . . .
1,133.69
----------
$21,325.73
On 30 January, 1849, the district court passed the following
decree:
"This cause having been heard by the court upon the pleadings
and proofs, and the court being now sufficiently advised in the
premises, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that
the schooner
Lucy Ann and cargo, now before the court
libeled against in this cause are of the value of
Page 52 U. S. 524
$23,925.73, to-wit, said schooner being of the value of $2,600,
and said cargo of the value of $21,325.73, and the same was, on 18
December, 1848, saved from entire loss and destruction by means of
assistance rendered by the steamship
Globe, whereof Henry
Place was master, and Charles Morgan, John T. Wright Henry Morgan,
and C. Harris owners; it is therefore ordered, adjudged, and
decreed by the court that the libellants, Henry Place, Charles
Morgan, John T. Wright Henry Morgan, and C. Harris have and recover
in full satisfaction for their salvage the one fifth part of the
aforesaid gross amount of the aforesaid value of said schooner and
cargo, to-wit, the sum of $4,785.14, and that said schooner and
cargo be and the same are hereby charged with and subjected to the
payment of said amount of salvage, the said schooner to be charged
with the payment of the sum of $520 thereof, and the said cargo to
be charged with the payment of the sum of $4,265.14 thereof. And it
is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that said schooner
Lucy Ann, her tackle, apparel, and furniture, be condemned
and that the same be sold by the marshal of this district for the
payment of said sum of $520 so assessed thereon as aforesaid, and
that said cargo be condemned, and that the same be sold by the
marshal of this district, for the payment of said sum of $4,235.14
so assessed as aforesaid, and that the proceeds of said schooner
and cargo be brought into court to abide the further order of this
court herein. And it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that
said sales take place on 24 February, 1849, after giving ten days'
notice of the time and place of sale, and that all costs and
charges in this cause be taxed upon and paid out of the balance of
the proceeds of said schooner and cargo after the payment of the
aforesaid amount of salvage, unless Arthur Spear, the respondent,
shall immediately pay the same into court."
"By agreement of the libellants in this cause by their proctors
made in open court, it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the
court that the sum of $4,785.14 decreed to be paid to the
libellants in said cause be distributed, apportioned, and paid to
the libellants in proportions as follows, to-wit, to Henry Place,
the master of the steamship
Globe, the sum of $250, and to
Charles Morgan, John T. Wright Henry Morgan, and C. Harris the
owners of the steamship
Globe, the sum of $4,535.14."
From this decree the claimant appealed to this Court.
Afterwards the district court allowed the vessel and cargo to be
released upon payment into court of the amount decreed for salvage
and costs.
Page 52 U. S. 525
MR. JUSTICE WOODBURY delivered the opinion of the Court.
A libel was filed in the District Court of Texas, December 22,
1848, by Place, as master of the steamship
Globe, and four
others as owners. It was
in rem against the schooner
Lucy Ann, her tackle and cargo, on a claim for
salvage.
The material averments were that the schooner on the 18th of
that month, in a fog, got ashore on the north breakers of the bar
at the entrance of the port of Galveston; that the libellant,
seeing her danger and signals of distress, assisted in getting her
off, and saving the vessel and cargo; and the libel then prayed
that all persons interested therein be notified to appear and show
cause why the libellants should not have a decree for such money or
such proportion of the property saved as is a just compensation for
their salvage services.
On the same day, a writ of seizure issued against the vessel and
cargo, whenever found, and the officer the same day returned
Page 52 U. S. 526
that he had seized the vessel, but after taking the cargo, in
the hands of seven different owners and consignees, in various and
independent proportions, had left it there on receiving their
receipts therefor.
On 29 December, at the time notified, Spear, the master and part
owner of the schooner appeared professedly in behalf of himself and
other owners of both vessel and cargo, and denied most of the
allegations in the libel and any rightful claim by the plaintiffs
for salvage, and prayed for judgment and cost in his own
behalf.
It was shown at the trial by the appraisement and evidence that
the schooner was worth $2,600 and the cargo $21,325.73, and after a
full hearing of the witnesses, the salvage decreed by the court was
one fifth of the value, being $520 on the schooner and $4,265.14 on
the cargo.
From this decree Spear entered an appeal, and the first question
presented is whether this Court has jurisdiction to sustain it.
In order to sustain it, the decree must be of the value of
$2,000, against his own interests or those of some persons he can
properly represent here.
But his own private interests extend only to about one-fourth of
the vessel, charged with a salvage of less than $200, and if he may
be considered as properly acting for the other and absent part
owners, the decree against the whole vessel is but $520, or $1,480
less than is necessary to confer on us jurisdiction in this class
of cases.
It is the amount of salvage, if any, which is in controversy and
which tests the jurisdiction, and not the value of the vessel or
cargo.
Wilson v.
Daniel, 3 Dall. 401.
The next inquiry is whether the salvage on the vessel can be
made sufficient to give jurisdiction by adding any interest of the
master in the cargo affected by the decree.
But he does not claim, nor appear to have owned, any part of the
cargo.
Nor could he properly, as mere master of the vessel, represent
or act for any part of the cargo after it was delivered to the
consignees, they residing near, as was the case in this instance,
at the time of his appearance as well as at the time of his
appeal.
Had the salvage against the cargo been claimed at a distance
from the owners or consignees, and while it was in his custody or
control, he might
ex officio possess some power, and be
liable to some duty, in watching over it, in their absence.
The Schooner
Adeline, 9 Cranch 286. But when, as here, his
possession and control had entirely ceased, and the consignees
lived in the same city where the court was held, and were in full
charge of the cargo, no official connection continued, and no other
is set up or pretended to be proved.
Page 52 U. S. 527
In strict law, then, it does not seem competent for him to
prosecute any appeal in their behalf, separately or in conjunction
with his own interests, without showing some special authority from
them for that purpose. Several precedents fully sustain this
view.
Thus, in the case of
The Schooner Sally and Cargo, 1
Gallis. 402, it is laid down that
"in all cases where it is practicable, it is the duty of the
owners to claim in person or at least to annex their own affidavit
to the special facts stated in support of the claim."
Especially is such the case where the owners or consignees are
within the jurisdiction of the court, as it is so easy to do it, if
desiring any interference, and as by the master's appearing and
appealing without their authority they might be involved in
litigation and costs against their wishes.
The Ship St.
Lawrence and Cargo, 1 Gallis. 469, Dunlap's Adm.Pr. 161.
But supposing it were too late, after allowing his appearance
below in their behalf, to object to his further prosecution of the
claim by an appeal, still the insufficiency of the amount of any
one decree or of any one class of interests in any one person or
firm to justify our jurisdiction is not removed.
In case of an individual claiming for others in admiralty, the
rights of each person or firm represented are supposed to be
contained or covered in separate decrees or separate portions of
one decree, as each owns separately, and if not thus considered,
one may have to pay or be made to suffer for another.
Oliver v.
Alexander, 6 Pet. 143;
Stratton
v. Javis, 8 Pet. 11.
Here, the decree relating to the schooner was against persons
not appearing to be owners of any part of the cargo, and, as before
shown, was entirely inadequate in amount to give us
jurisdiction.
The consignees of the cargo were likewise seven persons or
firms, in distinct or separate lots of goods, valued from about
$100 in some to the highest in one case of $5,678.
There does not appear to have been any joint interest among
them, and though the decree below is inartificial, yet each should
pay and be ordered to pay the salvage on his own goods, and no
others, as much as if each had in person put in a separate claim.
31 U. S. 6 Pet.
150;
33 U. S. 8 Pet.
11.
"In such a case," says Justice Story,
"though the original libel is against the whole property
jointly, yet it is severed by the several claims; and no appeal
lies by either party unless in regard to a claim exceeding a sum of
$2,000 in value. This has been the long and settled practice in the
admiralty courts of this country."
31 U. S. 6 Pet.
150.
Page 52 U. S. 528
The salvage on the largest claim would be only $1,136.80, and
would have to be paid by J. S. Vedder, the consignee, in order to
prevent a sale of his part of the cargo. From its being under
$2,000, as we before said, he could not appeal, nor any other
person for him, so as to confer jurisdiction on us.
It follows, then, that, as no one person, either in his own
right or in the right of some other person or firm, and as no one
lot of the goods, or owner of the vessel, was subject by the decree
to pay as much as $2,000 in salvage, the appeal must be dismissed
for want of jurisdiction.
Were this result more doubtful, we should feel averse to sustain
jurisdiction, unless clearly bound to, in a class of appeals like
this, not entitled to favor, unless, in the language of Chief
Justice Marshall in
The Sibyl, 4
Wheat. 98, "it manifestly appeared that some important error had
been committed."
Order
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record
from the District Court of the United States for the District of
Texas, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is
now here ordered, adjudged, and decreed by this Court that this
cause be, and the same is hereby dismissed for the want of
jurisdiction.
