Joseph P. Bradley

“ Not alone, however, in cases of complaints made by foreign seamen, but in other cases also, where the subjects of a particular nation invoke the aid of our tribunals to adjudicate between them and their fellow-subjects as to matters of contract or tort solely affecting themselves, and determinable by their own laws, such tribunals will exercise their discretion whether to take cognizance of such matters or not. A salvage case of this kind came before the United States district court of New York in 1848. ”

“ The decision of the court must be taken as the collective result from the whole case. It cannot be judged from mere isolated expressions in the opinion.
The rule contended for by the appellants, that negligence and fault must be proved, and not presumed, is undoubtedly a sound one, and hardly needs cases to support it. But the circuit court evidently did not rest the case on presumption, but pon proof, from which it properly deduced negligence on the part of the steam-ship. ”

“ The first of these qualifications can rarely be called into requisition at the present day, since, for more than 20 years past, all the principal maritime nations of the world (at least, those whose vessels navigate the Atlantic ocean) have concurred in adopting a uniform set of rules and regulations for the government of vessels on the high seas. ”

“ For salvage is a question of jus gentium, and materially different from the q estion of a mariner's contract, which is a creature of the particular institutions of the country, to be applied and construed and explained by its own particular rules. There might be good reason, therefore, for this court to decline to interefere in such cases, and to remit them to their own domestic forum; but this is a general claim, upon the general ground of quantum meruit, to be governed by a sound discretion, acting on general principles ”

“ Nor is this special character of the case entirely absent when foreign seamen sue the master of their ship for ill treatment. On general principles of comity, admiralty courts of other countries will not interfere between the parties in such cases unless there is special reason for doing so, and will require the foreign consul to be notified, and, though not absolutely bound by, will always pay due respect to, his wishes as to taking jurisdiction. ”

“ But jurisdiction was retained by Dr. LUSHINGTON, who, among other things, remarked: 'An alien friend is entitled to sue [in our courts] on the same footing as a British-born subject, and if the foreigner in this case had been resident here, and the cause of action had originated infra corpus comitatus, no objection could have been taken.' Reference being made to the observations of Lord STOWELL in cases of seamen's wages, the judge said: 'All questions of collision are questions communis juris ”