Henry Billings Brown

“ Replying to the suggestion that, if jurisdiction were sustained of repairs upon a canal boat drawn by horses, it would apply with equal propriety to a blacksmith's bill for shoeing the horses, it is only necessary to say that, for incidental repairs made on land to articles of a ship's furniture or machinery, it has never been supposed that a court of admiralty had jurisdiction. ”

“ I do not mean that the several maritime nations did not establish different rules, or that there is not some dissimilarity in their maritime laws, for, as long as each nation is the master of its own territory, it may legislate as it sees fit in reference to maritime matters coming within its jurisdiction, and yet this does not abridge the fact that admiralty grew up out of the thought of having a common law of the seas. ”

“ So long as the vessel is engaged in commerce and navigation it is difficult to see how the jurisdiction of admiralty is affected by its means of propulsion, which may vary in the course of the same voyage, or with new discoveries made in the art of navigation. Thus, canal boats, upon their arrival at Albany, are at once relieved of their horses, and taken by a steamer in tow to New York or Jersey City. ”

“ I do not like to see these provisions, which have so long been the boast of our Anglo-Saxon system of procedure, frittered away by either legislative or judicial action.
Further, it seems a great hardship that a party who has been brought into a court of general jurisdiction, with full opportunity to litigate the claim of the plaintiff, and has carried the case through all the courts of the state without ever disputing its validity, should now obtain a reversal of the entire proceedings when such reversal may operate to prevent the collection of the debt. ”

“ Or, suppose such repairs were made in a floating dry dock, as sometimes happens, would they be considered as made upon land or water? Or, suppose they were made in dry dock upon a seagoing vessel?
There is no doubt of the proposition that a dry dock itself is not a subject of salvage service or of admiralty jurisdiction, because it is not used for the purpose of navigation. ”

“ It grew up out of the fact that the ocean is not the territorial property of any nation, but the common property of all; that vessels engaged in commerce between the different nations ought, so far as possible, to be subject to a uniform law, and not annoyed by the conflicting local laws and customs of the several nations which they visit. ”

“ The truth is, the present employment of horses is a mere accident, and likely to be changed at any time by an enlargement of the canal, now in contemplation, when steam or electricity will probably supplant the present methods of locomotion. The modern law of England and America rules out of the admiralty jurisdiction all vessels propelled by oars, simply because they are the smallest class and beneath the dignity of a court of admiralty ”

“ It matters not whether such waters are natural or artificial highways, canals or rivers. If they open to the ocean, or are connected with the ocean, they become, or may become, the highways of ocean commerce, and, therefore, in order that the admiralty jurisdiction may be fully exercised, it was held, and rightfully, in The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, that it extends to all navigable waters of the United States. Take the case of a landlocked lake within the limits of New York. Unquestionably, the state has full jurisdiction over its waters and the vessels traversing them. ”

“ Surely, that is as far as the most strenuous advocates of an extended admiralty jurisdiction can claim, and it is only in those cases, as the section provides, where the lien is not founded upon a maritime contract that the state courts may exercise jurisdiction. The state courts of New York, from the trial through the supreme to the court of appeals, have all held that this lien was not founded upon a maritime contract. Upon what just ground can this court disturb this finding? If it be a pure question of fact, we have often held that we are bound by the action of the state courts. ”

“ As heretofore observed, the exclusive jurisdiction of the admiralty court in this case was attacked upon the grounds, already discussed, that artificial canals and the vessels plying thereon are not within its jurisdiction. A further suggestion, however, is made, that the contract in this case was not only made on land, but was to be performed on land, and was, in fact, performed on land. This argument must necessarily rest upon the assumption that repairs put upon a vessel while in dry dock are made upon land. We are unwilling to admit this proposition. ”

“ Whereas, in matters affecting the stranger or foreigner, the commonly received law of the whole commercial world is more assiduously observed, in justice, it should be. No one doubts that every nation may adopt its own maritime code. France may adopt one, England another, the United States a third ”

“ Justice Miller, speaking for the court on page 571, L. ed. p. 456, describing the remedy provided for by that statute:
'The remedy pursued in the Iowa courts, in the case before us, is in no sense a common-law remedy. It is a remedy partaking of all the essential features of an admiralty proceeding in rem. The statute provides that the vessel may be sued and made defendant without any proceeding against the owners, or even mentioning their names. That a writ may be issued and the vessel seized, on filing a petition similar, in substance, to a libel. ”

“ A dock is an artificial basin in connection with a harbor, used for the reception of vessels in the taking on or discharging of their cargoes, and provided with gates for preventing the rise and fall of the waters occasioned by the tides, and keeping a uniform level within the docks. ”

“ Articles removed from a vessel and repaired or renovated upon land at the shop of the artisan, stand upon quite a different footing from repairs made upon the vessel herself, and are the subject of a possessory lien at common law. ”

“ This case raises the question of the construction and constitutionality of the statutes of the state of New York, giving a lien for repairs upon vessels, and providing for the enforcement of such lien by proceedings in rem. The statuts conferring the lien, so far as it is material, is given in the margin. It will be noticed that it expressly excludes liens founded upon maritime contracts. ”

“ In fact, neither size, form, equipment, nor means of propulsion are determinative factors upon the question of jurisdiction, which regards only the purpose for which the craft was constructed, and the business in which it is engaged.
The application of this criterion has ruled out the floating dry dock, the floating wharf, the ferry bridge hinged or chained to a wharf, the sailors' Bethel moored to a wharf (Cope v. Valette Dry Dock Co. 119 U.S. 625, 30 L. ed. 501, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 336) , and a gas float moored as a beacon (The Whitton, [1895] p. 301, [1896] p. 42, [1897] A. C. 337) . ”

“ Rep. 434, the doctrine of The Belfast was reiterated and applied to a collision between canal boats, Mr. Justice Blatchford saying that 'it makes no difference, as to the jurisdiction of the district court, that one or the other of the vessels was, at the time of the collision, on a voyage from one place in the state of Illinois to another place in that state.' To the same effect are The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 19 L. ed. 999; The Montello, 20 Wall. 430, 22 L. ed. 391; The Commerce, 1 Black, 574, sub nom. Commercial Transp. Co. ”